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Dwight Lyman Moody's 

LIFE WORK AND 

LATEST SERMONS 

AS DELIVERED BY THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 

TOGETHER WITH A BIOGRAPHY OF 
IRA DAVID SANKEY. 




Handsomely Illustrated from Gustave Dore. 



Edited by RICHARD S. RHODES. 



"Son, remember."— Luke xvi: 25. 



CHICAGO: 

RHODES & McCIvURE PUBLISHING CO. 

1900. 

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Library of CongreM 

Two Copies Received 
DEC 18 1900 

Copyright entry 

SECOND COPY 

DaUvwed to 

ORDER DIVISION 
JAN 10 1901 



'if 



^V.\aI 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1900 by the 

Rhodes & McClure Publishing Company, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C 

All Rights Reserved. 




The Rev. pr. N. D. Hillis, ofl Plymouth Church, Brook- 
lyn, says in a letterTo tlie'TEnfefior" of Dwight L. Moody's 
life, work and sermons in part as follows : 

"For the republic, the roll call of self-made men is long 
and brilliant. Orators like Clay come in from the corn- 
fields, statesmen like Webster come from the bleak hillsides 
of New England, presidents like Lincoln come forth from 
the university of rail-splitting, the inventors, merchants, and 
editors come in from rural districts and villages, and all are 
the architects of their own fortunes. But among all this 
group of men whose life in low estate began on a simple 
village green, none is more thrilling in its struggles, more 
picturesque in its contrasts and more pathetic in its defeats 
and victories than that of the great evangelist. An orphan 
at four, one of the props of the family at nine, at nineteen a 
clerk in a shoe store of Chicago, at twenty-three the foun- 
der of a Young Men's Christian Association, where he slept 
on the benches because he had no bed, and bought a loaf at 
the bakery because he had no money for board. At twenty- 
four, the superintendent of a Sunday school in a deserted 
saloon, where his pupils were drunkards, tramps, ragamuf- 
fins, mingled with street waifs and boys from a newsboys' 
home ; at forty, the most widely-talked-about man in Great 
Britain, where his friends were college presidents and pro- 
fessors, authors, editors, statesmen, scientists, like Drum- 



PREFACE. 

mond and Lord Kelvin. Returning home, in Philadelphia 
he found that merchants had erected for his meetings a 
building seating ten thousand people, an event that was re- 
peated in New York, Boston, Chicago, and many other 
great cities in our land. At fifty-three he founded a training 
school for young men and women in Chicago that has sent 
out fifteen hundred workers ; a school for young women at 
East Northfield, and for young men at Mount Hermon, in- 
stitutions that now have for their work more than a score 
of great buildings. Thrilling, indeed, this story. It repeats 
the experience of young David, who passed from the sheep- 
cote to the king's throne, and the scepter of universal sway. 
" 'Where were the hidings of his power ?' you ask. From 
nothing, nothing comes. Blood tells. A great ancestry ex- 
plains a great man. The time was when men thought God 
called the prophet. But when God wants a John the Bap- 
tist, he calls not the son, but the father and mother, and 
they ordain the child in the cradle, and before the cradle. 
When the Hebrews were in bondage in Egypt, one mother 
there was brave enough to dare the king and hide her babe 
in an ark, amidst the bulrushes, and the mother's courage 
repeated itself in the greatest of jurists, Moses. Hannah 
was a dreamer who loved solitude, and walked the. hills 
alone with God ; whose eyes 'were homes of silent prayer,' 
and her religious genius repeated itself in her son Samuel, 
one of the greatest of the judges. What was unique in 
Timothy, Paul tells us, was first of all unique in his mother 
Lois, and his grandmother Eunice. And the greatest evan- 
gelist since Whitfield had his power through the ordain- 
ment of a great ancestry. He was of the best New England 
stock. His father had the fine old Puritan fiber, and his 
mother, widowed with her little flock about her, exhibits 
almost unparalleled heroism, courage and hope in the hour 
of suffering and trouble. For the tides of power in this man 

2 



PREFACE. 

flow down from the anectral hills. Among his birth gifts 
was the gift of perfect health and a perfect body, with stores 
of energy that seemed well-nigh inexhaustible. 

"His, also, was the gift of common sense, a mind hungry 
for knowledge, a reason that saw clearly or saw not at all ; 
moral earnestness, sincerity, self-reliance, courage, wit, 
humor, pathos, an intuitive knowledge of men, the genius 
for organization. Like Isaiah, he had a quenchless passion 
for righteousness. Like Daniel, he had the courage of his 
convictions in the face of fierce opposition. Like Paul, his 
enthusiasm for men made him the herald of righteousness 
to foreign nations. Like Bernard, his was the crusader's 
heart, organizing his hosts against passion, ignorance and 
sin. Without the eloquence of Spurgeon, without the fine 
culture of Phillips Brooks, without the supreme genius of 
Mr. Beecher, Mr. Moody was a herald, a man sent forth 
from God, who called the unchurched classes to repentance, 
who flamed forth on them the love of God in Christ. For 
nearly six years, it is said that Mr. Moody's audiences aver- 
aged five thousand each afternoon and evening, a record 
that has never been surpassed in all the history of evangel- 
ism. 'Our bishops,' said the London Telegraph, /have back 
of them a state income, great cathedrals, a small army of 
paid helpers and musicians, but where our bishops have 
reached tens this man has reached hundreds.' 

"If preaching is man making and man mending, then Mr. 
Moody was a veritable prince among preachers. In view of 
the great audiences of 15,000 people that thronged into, or 
about, the hall in Kansas City, where he preached his last 
sermon, all must confess that no preacher in the land since 
Mr. Beecher's time was comparable to Mr. Moody in per- 
sonal popularity, or in power to hold the masses. Any 
student skilled in the art of reading human nature, who has 
been upon the platform beside the great evangelist, and 

3 



PREFACE. 

while listening to his words has noted their effects upon 
the faces of the vast audience before him, must make haste 
to affirm that Mr. Moody knew the human mind and heart 
as a skillful musician knows his instrument, and sweeps all 
the banks of keys before him. In the addresses that were 
given no element of great speech was lacking. Mr. Moody 
moved his audience from tears to laughter; for laughter 
and tears are outer signs of inner thoughts and feelings. 
Life is determined by the emotions of the heart quite as 
much as by the arguments of the head. No matter how 
scholarly or intellectual the preacher may be, he is at best a 
second-rate preacher whose truth burns with a cold, white 
light. Truth in the hands of an intellectual philosopher 
who has found his way into the pulpit cuts with a keen edge, 
indeed, but truth in Mr. Moody's hands has been heated 
red hot, and the edge of bis sword burns as well as cuts, like 
the Word of God, dividing between the joints and marrow 
and separating the sinner from his evil deeds. 

"No misconception can be greater than to suppose that 
Mr. Moody has succeeded in spite of his lack of theological 
preparation. My old professor of dogmatic theology criti- 
cised me harshly during my student days for going to hear 
Mr. Moody on Sunday morning. Because the great evan- 
gelist was a layman, and unordained, this distinguished 
theologian said that he declined to attend any of Mr. 
Moody's meetings during his great campaign in a city in 
which this professor had formerly resided. It is true that 
Mr. Moody had never crossed the threshold of college or 
theological seminary. Moreover, in his enthusiasm he 
often used the vernacular, homely idioms, and in every ser- 
mon broke some of the laws of grammar or of rhetoric. But 
nothing is risked in the statement that it was a great good 
fortune for him that he never found his way into a theo- 
logical seminary. Nevertheless, he was a past master in his 

4 



PREFACE. 

chosen art. He reached men, not because he knew so little 
about preaching, but because he knew so much. Could 
some scholar take a volume of Mr. Moody's sermons, and 
condense his thoughts, methods, appeals and illustrations 
into a volume of homiletics, the book would be so large and 
comprehensive that the ordinary work on the art of preach- 
ing would not make an introduction thereto. Taken all in 
all, for the work of an evangelist this man represents more 
culture and more thought about the methods of reaching 
the common people than any other man in his generation. 
To him it has been given to meet all the great preachers of 
the day, and to work with them. His was also the power 
of selection from each Spurgeon, or Maclaren, or Brooks, 
or Beecher, and from each he selected his special gift and 
excellence. Having spent eight months of each year in 
working with the foremost pastors at home and abroad, he 
has had four months in summer for study and conference. 
Those who have seen Mr. Moody's library know that this 
man has been a student of books as well as men. Super- 
ficial, indeed, the judgment of those who think that Mr. 
Moody was without education, or training, or logic, or 
knowledge of preaching as a science. With him preaching 
became a fine art, an art that conceals the art. Did our 
theological seminaries multiply, their three years of study 
by two, they could not hope to equip their students as long 
study and experience with men and books have equipped 
Mr. Moody. The methods the great evangelist adopted 
gather up the experience of twenty years of working with 
the greatest preachers of England, Scotland and America. 
Perhaps of all the arts and occupations in our age, not one 
is comparable to the art of preaching. It demands the 
highest talent, the deepest culture, tireless practice and 
complete consecration. And happy the generation to whom 
God gave this herald of good tidings, this friend of the 

5 



PREFACE. 

common people, this messenger to the unchurched multi- 
tudes, who followed him as their leader along those paths 
that lead to prosperity and peace, to Christ, man's Savior, 
to God, man's Father." 

"In his life and actions Mr. Moody was as bold and fear- 
less as in his sermons and revival exhortations. There was 
no place he would not go, no duty he would not undertake, 
if he felt that he could accomplish good." 

With the earnest prayer that God's blessing may accom- 
pany the reading of the great evangelist's life, work and 
sermons, this volume is dedicated to the public. 

RICHARD S. RHODES. 

Chicago, 111., January i, 1900. 





PAGE 

Biography of D. L. Moody i 

Moody and Sankey in Great Britain xiii 

Moody and Sankey in the United States xxiii 

Mr. Moody at Northfield xxvii 

Mr. Moody's Sickness and Death xxxiv 

The Funeral at East Northfield xxxviii 

Biography of Ira David Sankey xLii 

The Work of the Holy Spirit..... 447 

God's Service and the Holy Spirit 456 

Elements of True Prayer. 471 

Thy Will, Not Mine, Be Done 480 

Trust in God Brings Perfect Peace 493 

Watch, Fight and Pray 507 

The Influence of the Individual 516 

That "Elder Brother" 530 

Obedience to God's Commands 545 

"No Room for Christ" 556 

How To Be Saved 569 

Sowing and Reaping 580 

How to Convert Infidels 600 

Excuse-Giving 621 

The Work of the Shepherd 632 

The Centurion at Capernaum 648 

Our Victory Over the World 660 

Forgiveness and Obedience ' 681 

The Power of Faith 695 

The Inspiration of the Bible 709 

"God is Love" 721 

The Best Way to Study the Bible 735 

Walking with God 752 

What Shall the Harvest Be? 769 




PAGE 

D. L. Moody opposite i 

Mr. Moody Preaching in the Royal Opera House, 

Haymarket, London xiii 

Chicago Tabernacle, Erected for Mr. Moody's Services. xxiii 

Ira D. Sankey opposite xiii 

Daniel Confounding the Priests of Bel 446 

Paul at Ephesus...'. 457 

Prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Olives 470 

The Crucifixion 481 

Hagar in the Wilderness 492 

Ezekiel Prophesying 506 

The Good Samaritan 517 

Joseph Sold into Egypt 530 

Noah Cursing Ham 544 

The Flight Into Egypt .'. 557 

Christ in the Synagogue 563 

The Disciples Plucking Corn on the Sabbath 581 

David Sparing Saul 601 

Lazarus and the Rich Man 620 

The Martyrdom of Stephen 633 

Jesus and the Tribute Money 649 

The Burial of Sarah 661 

Christ's Entry Into Jerusalem 680 

The Trial of the Faith of Abraham 694 

Isaac Blessing Jacob 708 

Mary Magdalene 720 

The Angel at the Sepulcher 734 

The Journey to Emmaus 753 

The Agony in the Garden 768 



DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 



Dwight Lyman Moody, the lay evangelist, was born 
in the town of Northfield, Massachusetts, on the fifth of 
February, 1837. He came of the old Puritan stock; his 
father's and mothers families being numbered among the 
earliest settlers of that state. His father, Edwin, owned 
a comfortable farm-house just without the town, and a 
few acres of stony land, the whole encumbered by a 
mortgage. When the building trade was brisk, he worked 
as a stone-mason, and his leisure hours he spent in culti- 
vating his little farm. But his spirit was crushed by re- 
verses in business, and he died suddenly after an illness 
of a few hours. Dwight was then only four years old, 
but the shock of that death made an impression on him 
which he declares he has never forgotten. This blow 
was followed by the birth of a twin boy and girl a few 
weeks later. Thus Mrs. Moody was burdened with the 
care of seven sons, and two daughters, of whom the 
eldest boy was only aged fifteen. Yet this widowed 
mother refused to part with any of her little brood. She 
bravely set about caring for them all, and contrived to 
have the little hands earn something for their support, by 
tilling the garden and doing odd jobs for the neighbors. 
She taught them every day a little Bible lesson, and 
always accompanied them to the Unitarian church and 

Sunday-school. 

i 



11 DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 

Another sorrow came on the bereaved family, through 
the oldest boy becoming a runaway. We give Mr. 
Moody's description of this incident, as he told it in Eng- 
land, and because of the insight it gives into his home 
life. 

' ' I can give you a little experience of my own family. 
Before I was four years old, the first thing I remember 
was the death of my father. He had been unfortunate 
in business, and failed. Soon after his death the cred- 
itors came in and took everything. My mother was left 
with a large family of children. One calamity after an- 
other swept over the entire household. Twins were 
added to the family, and my mother was taken sick. The 
eldest boy was fifteen years of age, and to him my mother 
looked as a stay in her calamity, but all at once that boy 
became a wanderer. He had been reading some of the 
trashy novels, and the belief had seized him that he had 
only to go away to make a fortune. Away he went. I 
can remember how eagerly she used to look for tidings 
of that boy; how she used to send us to the post-office to 
see if there was a letter from him, and I recollect how 
we used to come back with the sad news, ' No letter.' I 
remember how in the evenings, we used to sit beside 
her in that New England home, and we would talk about 
our father; but the moment the name of that boy was 
mentioned she would hush us into silence. Some nights 
when the wind was very high, and the house, which was 
upon a hill, would tremble at every gust, the voice of my 
mother was raised in prayer for that wanderer who had 
treated her so unkindly. I used to think she loved him 
more than all of us put together, and I believe she did. 
On a Thanksgiving day (you know that is a family day 



DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. Ill 

in New England) she used to set a chair for him, think- 
ing he would return home. Her family grew up, and her 
boys left home. When I got so that I could write, I 
sent letters all over the country, but could find no trace 
of him. One day while in Boston, the news reached me 
that he had returned. While in that city, I remember 
how I used to look for him in every store; he had a mark 
on his face, but I never got any trace. One day while 
my mother was sitting at the door, a stranger was seen 
coming toward the house, and when he came to the door 
he stopped. My mother didn't know her boy. He stood 
there with folded arms and great beard flowing down his 
breast, his tears trickling down his face. When my 
mother saw those tears, she cried, ' O, it's my lost son, ' 
and entreated him to come in. But he stood still. ' No, 
mother,' he said, ' I will not come in until I hear first 
that you have forgiven me.' Do you believe she was not 
willing to forgive him? Do you think she was likely to 
keep him long standing there. She rushed to the thresh- 
old, threw her arms around him, and breathed forgive- 
ness." 

Young Moody, at the age of seventeen, left North- 
field, with his mother's permission, to seek employment 
in Boston, where his uncle was in business, as a shoe 
merchant. Mr. Holton engaged his country nephew with 
some reluctance, and on two conditions. The lad agreed 
to be governed by his advice, and to attend regularly the 
Sunday-school and services of the Mount Vernon Con- 
gregational church. Its pastor was the eloquent and 
learned Dr. E. N. Kirk, who, in earlier years had ac- 
complished much good as an evangelist. The lad was 
not much impressed by the preaching, which he was not 



iy DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 

qualified to comprehend; but the personal efforts of his 
teacher, Mr. Edward Kimball, were blessed to his con- 
version. Many years after, he told the story of how he 
was saved. " When I was in Boston, I used to attend 
a Sunday-school class, and one day, I recollect a Sab- 
bath-school teacher came round behind the counter of 
the shop I was to work in, and put his hand on my 
shoulder, and talked to me about Christ and my soul. I 
had not felt that I had a soul till then. I said, ' This is 
a very strange thing. Here is a man who never saw me 
until within a few days, and he is weeping over my sins, 
and I never shed a tear about them.' But I understand 
it now, and know what it is to have a passion for men's 
souls and weep over their sins. I don't remember what 
he said, but I can feel the power of that young man's 
hand on my shoulder to-night. Young Christian men, 
go and lay your hand on your comrade's shoulder, and 
point him to Jesus to-night. Well, he got me up to the 
school, and it was not long before I was brought into the 
kingdom of God." Years afterward, when Mr. Moody 
was preaching in Boston, he was permitted to lead to 
the Savior a son of that teacher, who found peace in 
believing just at his own age of seventeen. Thus the 
seed sown on the waters bore in due time the sweetest 
fruitage for the sower. 

The young convert was unpromising enough at first 
in outward appearance. He knew very little of the 
Scriptures, and he was not grounded in evangelical truth. - 
Besides, his bashful shyness in the presence of cultured, 
refined Christians, his poor command of words to ex- 
press his thoughts, and his broken, awkward sentences, 
made him, in the language of his teacher, very "un- 



DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. V 

likely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided 
views of gospel truth, still less to fill any extended sphere 
of public usefulness." Therefore, it was that he was not 
accepted into membership until May, 1856, a year after 
his first application. He remained but a few months 
longer in Boston. He longed for a wider field of use- 
fulness, where his energy in business and religious work 
would be less trammeled. So, in September, 1856, he 
betook himself to Chicago with testimonials, which 
secured him a business engagement as salesman in the 
shoe trade. He also entered the Plymouth Congrega- 
tional church, and showed his earnest spirit by renting 
four pews, which he kept filled with young men and boys. 
He desired to work in the service of prayer; but the 
brethren were not patient enough to suffer his crude ex- 
perience, and suggestions were not infrequent that he 
could best serve the Lord by silence. 

Mr. Moody's first start in the work of reaching souls 
was obtained through a little mission school. He offered 
himself as teacher, and was told he might attend if he 
would bring his own scholars. So that week he collected 
together some eighteen ragged boys, and marched in at 
their head on the next Sunday. He liked such work so 
well that he set about further visitations in the by-streets, 
and soon had the school filled. He also busied himself 
in distributing tracts, and in looking after the good of 
the seamen at the wharves. His ardent spirit soon im- 
pelled him to set up a mission for himself, in a neglected 
and degraded section of North Chicago. He paid for 
the hire of an empty tavern, and gathered together the 
unclean and rude children of the neighborhood for Sun- 
day-school services, while the intemperate and ignorant 



VI D WIGHT LYMAN MOODYo 

adults were reached in the evening meetings. The poor 
little ones were won over to attention by gifts of maple 
sugar, and a liberal lot of hymns and stories. Just at 
this time, Mr. Reynolds, of Peoria, visited this humble 
mission. His description of the service is invaluable, as 
illustrating the progressive growth of the lay evangelist 
in strength and usefulness. ' ' The first meeting I ever 
saw him at," he said several years since, "was in a little 
old shanty that had been abandoned by a saloonkeeper. 
Mr. Moody had got the place to hold the meetings in at 
night. I went there a little late, and the first thing I 
saw was a man standing up, with a few tallow candles 
around him, holding a negro boy, and trying to read to 
him the story of the prodigal son; and a great many of 
the words he could not make out, and had to skip. I 
thought, if the Lord can ever use such an instrument as 
that for his honor and glory, it will astonish me. After 
that meeting was over, Mr. Moody said to me, 
'Reynolds, I have got only one talent. I have no edu- 
cation, but I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to 
do something for Him. I want you to pray for me.' I 
have never ceased from that day to this, morning and 
night, to pray for that devoted Christian soldier. I have 
watched him since then, have had counsel with him, and 
know him thoroughly; and, for consistent walk and con- 
versation, I have never met a man to equal him. It 
astounds me when I look back and see what Mr. Moody 
was, and then what he is under God to-day. The last 
time I heard from him, his injunction was, ' Pray forme 
every day; pray now that the Lord will keep me humble. ' ' 
Henceforth, missionary efforts were the uppermost 
concern in his daily life. The growth of his school led to 



DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. Vll 

the occupation of the North Market hall, and John V. 
Farwell, a liberal merchant, who supplied benches for the 
scholars, had the grace to become its superintendent. 
Under Moody's vigorous canvassing, the average attend- 
ance was kept up to six hundred and fifty, and sixty 
teachers were obtained. His engagements as a traveling 
salesman were not suffered to interfere with these Sunday 
duties, and he was rarely compelled to be absent. As 
the hall was used till a late hour on Saturday night for 
dancing, it was his custom for six years to clean out the 
dirt, and put the room in decent condition for the ser- 
vices. And he took care to let his light shine wherever 
he went. He feared neither drunkards nor rumsellers, 
deists nor infidels, for he felt himself a match for any ad- 
versary when armed with the sword of the Spirit, and 
strengthened by prayer. When the children of Roman 
Catholic parents stoned his windows, he at once sought 
redress of their bishop, and so won his confidence by a 
devout simplicity of spirit that immunity was secured for 
the future. His courageous avowal of his faith was 
startling to timid believers. When he was solicitous 
about the salvation of an acquaintance or a stranger, he 
hesitated not to kneel, and offer prayer for his conver- 
sion then and there, no matter whether they were out in 
the streets or traveling in a railroad car. His faith and 
spirit of consecration waxed stronger by the study of 
God's word and the constant fruitage of his life in good 
works. In i860, after a time of soul-searching in prayer, 
he determined to give all his time to God as an evangel- 
ist. When his employer inquired how he expected to 
support himself, he replied, "God will provide for me if 
He wishes me to keep on, and I shall keep on till I am 



Vlll DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 

obliged to stop." His impulse in this personal work for 
souls was derived from the zeal of one of his teachers, 
who was dying of consumption, and who was permitted, 
before his death, to lead every one of his large class to 
the Savior. He reduced his expenses to a minimum by 
doing without a home, so that he slept on a bench in the 
room of the Young Men's Christian association, and 
spent but little for food. After a time, contributions 
came to him from friends, and he was appointed a city 
missionary, so that his means for assisting the destitute 
were much enlarged. He commenced then to fulfill a 
vow by speaking to one unconverted man every day. 
Sometimes his tender approaches were rejected with 
scorn and cursing, but again and again persons who had 
vilified him were drawn by the power of a conscience 
under conviction to seek the intercession of his prayers, 
that they might be led to the Savior. 

In the spirit of reliance on the leading of the Lord, the 
evangelist was married, on the 28th of August, 1862, to 
Miss Emma C. Revell. This Christian lady was a help- 
ful assistant in his meetings, and her sympathy made 
their little fireside a refuge of rest to him amid his toils. 
For years their home was a small and plain cottage. But 
its hospitality become proverbial, for gospel-workers and 
reclaimed prodigals were entertained without stint. The 
gift of a daughter and a son made the father more sus- 
ceptible to the thoughts and impulses of a child-life. He 
took care always to remain in close communion with 
their budding minds, and his sermons often have graphic 
illustrations of the methods he took to make them familiar 
with the fundamental truths of the faith. Meanwhile his 
daily living was wholly committed to the providence of 



DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. IX 

God. His mind was absorbed in watching over the souls 
of the throngs about him, and he obeyed the Scriptural 
injunction to take no anxious thought for the morrow. 
He lived the placid life befitting a child of God, having 
the trustful faith that his Father would supply his needs 
while he was busy as a worker in His vineyard. One 
morning he said to his wife, " I have no money, and the 
house is without supplies. It looks as if the Lord had 
had enough of me in this mission work, and is going to 
send me back again to sell boots and shoes." But a day 
or two later brought to him two checks, one of fifty dol- 
lars for himself, and the other for his school. He ac- 
cepted this gift as a token from the Lord that he was 
held in favor. This instance was but one of many of a 
similar character. His unselfish labors raised up for him 
many friends, and these gave him, on New Year's day, 
1868, the lease of a pleasant and furnished house. 

This whole season was one abounding in labors. Be- 
sides his army services, Mr. Moody was keenly alive to 
the needs of his mission at the North Market hall. His 
school numbered a thousand scholars. The congrega- 
tion he had gathered together now contained three hun- 
dred adults converted under his preaching. Thus had 
grown up, wholly without human design, a stanch and 
inseparable congregation under a lay pastor. This was 
organized as an independent fold, on the basis of the 
evangelical faith. In 1863, a church building was 
erected on Illinois street, at a cost of $20,000. Never 
had a people a more faithful and energetic pastor to 
watch over their welfare. Nor was he in the least for- 
getful of the Young Men's Christian association of Chi- 
cago. By his efforts its noon services for prayer were 



X DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 

attended steadily by a thousand people. When its mem- 
bers were intent on obtaining a permanent hall, they 
elected him president in 1865 . Their expectations were 
fulfilled by the speedy erection of Farwell hall, and 
its dedication on the 29th of September, 1867. That 
building was destroyed by fire within a few months, but 
his exhaustless energy soon reared a second edifice on the 
same site. On Sunday evenings he used to preach in its 
hall after spending the morning in his own pulpit, and in 
the afternoon superintending ten hundred school children. 

When Farwell hall was dedicated, as ' ' the first hall 
ever erected for Christian young men," Mr. Moody con- 
fessed his faith that, by the Lord's blessing, a religious 
influence was to go out from them that " should extend 
through every county in the state, through every state 
in the union, and finally, crossing the waters, should help 
to bring the whole world to God." 

Mr. Moody has been for years peculiarly a Bible 
Christian. Again and again friends have suggested to 
him certain courses of study, or the reading of particular 
books. But the pressure of his active duties as an evan- 
gelist has always intervened and prevented him from 
making any effort for the attainment of a theological 
education. Hence, he has been providentially driven to 
depend upon his personal study of the Bible itself, as its 
own best interpreter. The solemn injunction of Holy 
Writ to "preach the word," and the word only, was 
impressed upon his mind by Harry Morehouse, ''the 
boy preacher," of Manchester, who told him, " You need 
only one book for the study of the Bible. Since I have 
been an evangelist, I have been the man of one book. If 
a text of Scripture troubles me, I ask another text to ex- 



DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. XI 

plain it; and if this will not answer, I carry it straight to 
the Lord." He met this lad, then aged seventeen, in his 
first visit to England and Ireland in 1867. A few months 
later, Morehouse visited Chicago, and delighted Mr. 
Moody by delivering seven Bible readings upon the love 
of God. He brought a multitude of passages to illustrate 
the depth of spiritual meaning in the text of John, iii, 16, 
which Luther has well termed "the little Gospel." This 
intercourse came to him as a new revelation of the won- 
ders of God's word and love. From that time his two 
accepted guide-books were Cruden's Concordance and the 
little Bible text-books. These aids enabled him to trace 
any word or doctrine through the Holy Scriptures. In 
Mr. Moody's second visit to England, in the spring of 
1872, he learned from the devout Plymouth Brethren to 
appreciate and appropriate the promises which abound 
in the Bible of the second coming of Christ. " I have felt 
like working three times as hard," he has stated, "since 
I came to understand that my Lord was coming back 
again. I look on this world as a wrecked vessel. God 
has given me a life-boat, and said to me, ' Moody, save 
all you can.'" He was also impressed by the prediction 
of Henry Varley, the Bible reader, ' ' It remains for the 
world to see what the Lord can do with a man wholly 
consecrated to Christ. " Again, at another time, he 
heard one Christian ask another of himself, ' ' Is this 
young man all O. O.?" meaning, " Is he out and out for 
Christ?" He has confessed that this question burned 
down into his soul, and taught him that it meant a good 
deal to be O. O. for Christ. 

The terrible fire of October, 1871, which swept Chi- 
cago into a whirlwind of flame, laid in ruins all the build- 



Xll DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 

ings that were associated with his labors. It also sepa- 
rated from him his yoke-fellow, Mr. Ira D. Sankey, who 
had joined him as a gospel singer only four months be- 
fore. But the evangelist was not cast down. Contribu- 
tions came to his aid from his friends at the east in an- 
swer to his appeals. Within three months he had a 
large frame tabernacle erected, measuring seventy-five 
by one hundred and nine feet. All his services were re- 
sumed, and the building also served as a storehouse of 
supplies for the impoverished district. His plans were 
laid out for the completion of a permanent church edi- 
fice, and an appeal for aid was made to the Sunday- 
school children of the land. While this was in progress, 
the two yoke-fellows, after a patient waiting on the 
Lord for guidance, accepted an invitation to visit the 
British isles as evangelists. Mr. Moody, after four 
months of self-searching inquiry, had made an entire 
consecration of his life to the Lord, and was fired with a 
baptism of the Spirit which, as he avowed later, made 
him eager * ' to go round the world and tell the perish- 
ing millions of a Savior's love." 




< 
w S 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



The mission of the gospel preacher and the gospel- 
singer to the British Isles was one of implicit faith and 
of unselfish zeal for the saving of sinners. The secret 
motive of Mr. Moody was " to win ten thousand souls 
to Christ." As far as worldly inducements were con- 
cerned, the circumstances were such as to forbid, rather 
than to favor, the venture across three thousand miles of 
sea. No influential association had extended an invita- 
tion to them, not a single individual had offered to help 
meet their personal expenses. Nor did these two com- 
panions, though they were about to take their families 
with them, expect or desire such a guarantee. They 
were united in the purpose to commit their ways entirely 
unto the Lord. To that end, they agreed beforehand to 
accept no payment for their services from any person or 
committee, and as well to refrain from any collections 
or enterprise for money-making. In such a spirit, they 
set forth, and on the 17th of June, 1873, they 
landed at Liverpool. There news met them that two of 
the three gentlemen who had invited them to England 
had died. The third, who lived at York, advised them 
to delay a month, but instead they hastened to that town 
the same night. All things human combined to dis- 
courage them. But their utter weakness was the promise 



xm 



XIV MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN, 

of success, for it gave the Lord the opportunity to glorify 
Himself by the mouth of His chosen messengers. 

Mr. Moody stood forth a plain man of the people. He 
was in thorough sympathy with the concerns of the great 
mass of humanity, and able to express religious truth in 
homely, vivid speech. He possessed a stalwart body, 
and a grand vitality, which qualified him to undertake 
tremendous toils without danger to. his health. A man 
of excellent executive capacity, and trained in the details 
of secular and religious business, he was able to organize 
enterprises on a vast scale, and to direct a multitude of 
assistants, so that congregations of many thousands 
could be handled as quietly as an ordinary assembly. A 
natural, self-reliant man, warped by neither pride nor 
vanity, he was wont as a speaker to forget his own in- 
dividuality in the hunger of his heart for the salvation of 
his hearers. A student of the Bible alone, and an -un- 
questioning believer of its every statement as coming 
from the Lord; an evangelist bravely equipped for his 
responsible calling by years of personal experience with 
inquirers and doubters; a man of prayer, who was often in 
secret communion with the Lord of Hosts, refreshing his 
strength for the perpetual conflict of life; he was also, 
as the full fruition of these characteristics, a Christian 
closely conformed fo the image of his Master by the in- 
dwelling Spirit of God, and because he had withholden 
no part of his nature from an unreserved consecration to 
His will. 

This ministry for preaching and singing the gospel 
began in the cathedral town of York. At the first 
prayer-meeting, held on Sunday morning, in a small room 
of the Association building, only four persons were pres- 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. XV 

ent; and Mr. Moody has characterized that as the best 
service he ever attended. The clergy looked coldly on 
the evangelists as intruders, and most of the churches 
were closed to them. They labored on bravely against 
these discouragements for a month, and were comforted 
by seeing above two hundred converts to Christ. Their 
work at Sunderland began on Sunday, July 27, at the 
invitation of a Baptist pastor. The ministers still held 
aloof, and even the Young Men's Christian association 
eyed them suspiciously for a week before offering the 
hand of fellowship. But the meetings steadily waxed 
larger. 

The evangelists were invited to Newcastle-on-the- 
Tyne, by the chief ministers of that town, and were 
heartily sustained by the leaders of the congregations. 
And now Mr. Moody confessed his hope. " We are on 
the eve of a great revival which may cover Great Britain, 
and perhaps make itself felt in America. And why may 
not the fire burn as long as I live? When this revival 
spirit dies, may I die with it." His prophetic words met 
an immediate fulfillment. All the meetings were thronged 
with attentive listeners, and as many as thirty-four ser- 
vices were held in a single week. A noonday prayer- 
meeting was organized, while special efforts were made 
to reach the factory hands and business men. An all- 
day-meeting was held on September 10, wherein 
seventeen hundred participated. One hour was spent in 
Bible reading, another on the promises, and the last in 
an examination of what the Scriptures teach concerning 
heaven. The town was wonderfully awakened, and every 
night sinners were drawn to the uplifted Savior. 

Edinburgh was prepared for the manifestation of a 



XVI MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

signal blessing by a series of union prayer-meetings, held 
in October and November, which softened and unified 
the hearts of Christians of various names. Hence it 
was that the evangelists were welcomed in such a spirit 
of sympathy that captious criticism was unthought of. 
The ministry of song was an unheard-of innovation. 
Yet the rooted aversion of the Scottish people to the 
singing of aught but psalms gave way quickly to the 
evident testimony of the Spirit to the spirituality of His 
messages and the tenderness of His voice. On the first 
day, Sunday, November 23, the Music hall was thronged 
with two thousand auditors, and many more were ex- 
cluded. Five hundred met at noon on Monday for 
prayer, and that attendance was soon doubled. Meet- 
ings for inquirers was held after each service. Three 
hundred in the first week confessed their sins had been 
forgiven. Their ages ranged from seventy-five to eleven. 
Students and soldiers, poor and rich, the backsliding, in- 
temperate, and skeptical, were all represented. The 
largest halls were found to be too small to accommodate 
the eager audiences. A striking case of conversion was 
that of a notorious infidel, the chairman of a club of free- 
thinkers. He declared his utter disbelief in the value of 
prayer, and defied Mr. Moody to test its power on him. 
The evangelist accepted the challenge in faith, and re- 
membered him continually in his petitions till he heard 
of his finding Christ, months afterwards. An impressive 
watch-meeting was held on the last night of the year, 
1873, and a special blessing was besought for the British 
people. The week of prayer, from the 4th to the 
nth of January, 1874, was observed throughout all 
Scotland, as a season of united prayer for invoking the 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. XV11 

Lord to visit the nation and the entire world in mercy. 
The most remarkable feature of this revival has been de- 
scribed as "the presence and the power of the Holy 
Ghost, the solemn awe, the prayerful, believing, expect- 
ant spirit, the anxious inquiry of unsaved souls, and the 
longing of believers to grow more like Christ; their hun- 
gering and thirsting after holiness." Similar characteris- 
tics have marked the advent of these yoke-fellows in 
every community. This mission in Edinburgh, which 
lasted till the 21st of January, 1874, resulted in 
adding three thousand to the city churches. 

At Dundee, meetings were held in the open air, at 
which from ten to sixteen thousand were present. Four 
hundred converts attended the meeting for praise and in- 
struction. The city of Glasgow was reached on Sunday, 
February 8. The first audience consisted of three 
thousand Sunday-school teachers; the prayer-meeting 
opened with half that number. The Crystal palace, 
which held above five thousand, was always crowded, 
though admission could only be had by ticket. To meet 
the emergency, special meetings were organized for 
young men and young women, inquirers, workingmen, 
and the intemperate. Seventeen thousand signatures to 
the pledge were secured here. So the work of awaken- 
ing went on for three months, steadily increasing in 
power. On the last Sunday afternoon, a great audience 
of some twenty or thirty thousand gathered in the palace 
garden, and hung on the words of Mr. Moody, as he 
spoke from the seat of a carriage. More than three thou- 
sand united to the city congregations, the large propor- 
tion of whom were under twenty-five. Short visits were 
then made to Paisley, Greenock and Gourock. In the 



XV111 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

summer a tour was taken through the Highlands, for the 
sowing of the seed of the word. Meetings were held in 
the open air at Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness and else- 
where, and many souls were won. In Ireland, the com- 
mon people heard the preacher gladly. The good work 
began at Belfast, on Sunday, September 6, 1874. To 
reach as many as possible, separate sessions were had for 
women and for men, for professing Christians, for the 
unconverted, and for inquirers, for young men and for 
boys. Huge gatherings were also addressed in the Bo- 
tanic gardens, a space of six acres being filled with atten- 
tive hearers. On Monday, September 27, a remarka- 
ble meeting of eight hours for inquirers was held, where- 
in above two hundred young men came unto Jesus and 
took His yoke upon them. And when the young con- 
verts were collected into a farewell-meeting, tickets for 
2, 150 were granted to such applicants. 

Dublin, five-sixths of whose inhabitants were not Prot- 
estant, awoke into a newness of religious life on the ad- 
vent of the evangelists. From the 25th of Octo- 
ber to the 29th of November, the whole city was 
stirred in a wonderful way. The great exhibition palace 
contained audiences in the evenings and on Sundays of 
from twelve to fifteen thousand. At the prayer-meetings 
and Bible-readings, the number often exceeded two 
thousand. Many Roman Catholics were attentive 
listeners, and parish priests as well. The" stillness of 
these vast assemblies was very marked. Truly the Lord 
was faithful in answering the prayer Mr. Moody continu- 
ally offers in private, "O God, keep the people still, hold 
the meeting in Thy hand." These labors ended with a 
three days' convention, at which eight hundred ministers 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. XIX 

attended, from all parts of Ireland. Above two thousand 
young converts confessed their new-born faith. 

Manchester for eight months had besought a blessing 
on its people; and these preparatory services were closed 
with a communion in which two thousand Christians 
united. The month of December was devoted here to 
evangelistic work. In spite of the wintry weather, the 
halls were crowded, and overflow meetings had to be 
organized. Here, as elsewhere, the large proportion of 
men in attendance was noticeable. The city was mapped 
out into districts, and the duty of distributing cards at 
every dwelling was assigned to a large corps of volun- 
teers. On one side of these was printed the hymn 
' ' Jesus of Nazareth passeth by;" and on the other, a 
short address by Mr. Moody, his text being Revelations, 
iii, 20. The efforts of the Young Men's Christian asso- 
ciation to purchase a suitable building met with a cordial 
indorsement, and a fourth of the entire amount needed 
was obtained at the first public meeting. 

In Sheffield, the scheme of house-to-house visitation 
had to be abandoned, in order to secure the co-operation 
of the clergy of the Church of England. The opening 
meeting was held on New Year's eve, and the address in 
that watch-night service was upon ' ' Work. " The great 
congregation, in response to Mr. Moody's request, finished 
the old year and began the new on their knees. For a 
fortnight, the dwellers in this industrial town collected in 
such numbers as to pack the halls and the sidewalks 
about them, so that the evangelist had frequently to 
speak in the open air. The work at Birmingham, "the 
toy-shop of the world," was also limited for lack of time. 
The spacious Town hall was crowded on January 17, 



XX MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

1875; an d for the other gatherings, even Bingley hall, 
which held twelve thousand, proved too small. Another 
Christian convention was held, at which above a thousand 
ministers attended. Sixteen hundred converts received 
tickets to the special meeting for counsel. After pausing 
a week for a vacation, these lay apostles began their 
ministry of a month at Liverpool on February 7. Vic- 
toria hall, a wooden structure able to shelter eleven 
thousand, was expressly erected for their reception. It 
was crowded at all the night services, while an average 
of six thousand attended the Bible lectures and noon 
meetings for prayer. These three services were held 
every day except Saturday, when these devoted laborers 
took the rest which their over-taxed energies so imper- 
atively demanded. The house-to-house visitation was 
resumed here, and efforts were made to have a personal 
talk with the non-churchgoers. The corner-stone for 
the new hall of the Young Men's Christian association 
was laid, and a convention held for two days, which was 
largely attended by ministers and laymen. 

Four months were devoted to evangelizing the gigantic 
metropolis of London. Four centers were selected for 
preaching; Agricultural hall, at Islington, North London, 
could seat fourteen thousand and give standing room for 
six thousand more; Bow Road hall, in the extreme east, 
had ten thousand sittings; the Royal Opera house, in 
the west end, was in the aristocratic quarter of West- 
minster; and Victoria theater, in the south, was used 
until Camberwell hall was completed in June. This 
gospel campaign — the mightiest ever undertaken by any 
evangelist — was preceded by a course of union prayer- 
meetings for five months, that the Lord might prepare 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. XXI 

the way for a glorious manifestation of His power by 
purging the hearts of His own followers. A private con- 
ference was also held in advance with fifteen hundred of 
the city clergy, in order to explain the usual plan of pro- 
cedure, and remove any misapprehensions that might 
exist. The whole city was parceled out for canvassing, 
and countless bands of yoke-fellows were sent out to 
leave at every dwelling the tract drawn up by Mr. Moody, 
and to tender an invitation to the services. Among these 
laborers was an old woman aged eighty-five years, who 
fulfilled her duties faithfully, and met everywhere words 
of kindness. This wonderful mission was opened on 
Tuesday evening, the 9th of March, at Islington. 
For a time, the services were met with mockery and 
ribald speeches without, by disorderly men and women. 
But the demonstrations soon subsided, as the real piety 
of the speakers became evident. Fully eighty thousand 
attended the services of the first three days, and forty- 
five thousand heard the three addresses on the Sunday 
following. At the Royal Opera house, the nobility and 
gentry of England were directly reached by Bible-read- 
ing, and members of the royal family were frequently 
present. The last gospel-meeting was greater than any 
preceding, and a great number arose to receive the Lord 
Jesus Christ. The final meeting of thanksgiving was 
held at Mildmay Park Conference hall, on July 12. 
Seven hundred ministers were present to say farewell to 
the evangelist, whom they were so loath to see depart. 
Dr. A. Bonar testified that the work of increase was still 
going on in Glasgow, with at least seven thousand mem- 
bers already added to its churches. Other ministers bore 
witness to the abundant fruit of the revival. Then, after 



XXll MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

silent prayer, the two evangelists hastily withdrew, not 
daring to expose themselves to the ordeal of parting with 
so many dear associates. They had held 285 meet- 
ings in London; these were attended by fully 2,500,000 
people; the expenses were $140,000. These companions 
came together at the final meetings in Liverpool. They 
sailed homeward on the 6th of August, attended by 
many loving prayers, and arrived in New York on the 
14th. 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The gospel campaign in the union began at Brooklyn, 
on Sunday, October 24, 1875, an d continued there until 
November 19. The rink, on Clermont avenue, which 
had sittings for five thousand, was selected for the preach- 
ing services, while Mr. Talmage's tabernacle was devoted 
to prayer-meetings. A choir of 250 Christian singers 
was led by Mr. Sankey. 

In Philadelphia, a spacious freight depot, at Thirteenth 
and Market streets, was improvised to serve as a hall. 
Chairs were provided for about ten thousand listeners, 
besides a chorus of six hundred singers seated on the 
platform. The expenses were met by voluntary con- 
tributions outside, which amounted to $30,000. A corps 
of three hundred Christians acted as ushers, and a like 
number of selected workers served in the three inquiry- 
rooms. At the opening service, early on Sunday morn- 
ing, November 21, nine thousand were present, in spite 
of a drenching storm. In the afternoon, almost twice as 
many were turned away as found entrance. Henceforth, 
until the close, on January 16, the attendance and popu- 
lar interest never slackened. A special service was held 
on Thanksgiving day, and a watch-meeting on New 

xxiii 



XXIV MOODY AND SANKEY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Year's eve, from nine to twelve. Efforts were made to 
reach all classes of the community, and the meetings for 
young men were specially blessed. A careful computa- 
tion puts the total attendance at 9,000,000, and the con- 
verts at 4,000. Before leaving the city, a col- 
lection was made on behalf of the new hall of the Young 
Men's Christian association, and about $100,000 were 
obtained. A Christian convention was held on the 
19th and 20th of January, and pertinent sugges- 
tions about the methods of evangelistic work were given 
for the benefit of the two thousand ministers and laymen 
in attendance from outlying towns. 

For the mission in New York city, the hippodrome at 
Madison and Fourth avenues was leased, at a rental of 
$1,500 weekly, and $10,000 were expended in its pre- 
paration. It was partitioned into two halls, one seating 
6,500, the other 4. 000, the intent being to use the second 
for overflow meetings, and so bring such large congre- 
gations more completely under the speaker's control. A 
choir of eight hundred singers and corps of lay workers 
were organized. The deep concern of the people to hear 
the plain gospel preached and sung was as deep here 
among all classes as elsewhere, and the attendance was 
unflagging from February 7 to April 19. Again a 
Christian conference was convened for two days, at 
which Christian workers from the north and east took 
counsel together. At the final meeting for young con- 
verts, 3, 500 were present by ticket. 

Mr. Moody spent two weeks in May with his friend 
Major Whittle, at Augusta, Georgia, while Mr. Sankey 
took a rest at Newcastle. He preached with his usual 
fervor to large congregations. He traveled northward 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN THE UNITED STATES. XXV 

to Chicago by way of Nashville, Louisville, St. Louis 
and Kansas City, holding meetings on the way. His 
new church edifice on Chicago avenue was opened on 
his arrival. It was a large brick building with stone 
facings, measuring 120 by 100 feet, and having a bell- 
tower 120 feet high. Its entire cost was $100,000, all 
of which was paid before its dedication. August and 
September were spent in a visit to the old Northfield 
homestead, and in little tours to Greenfield, Springfield 
and Brattleboro. 

Chicago gave the heartiest welcome to its own Moody 
and Sankey in October, where they resumed the mission 
work suspended by them three years before. A taber- 
nacle was erected which could shelter ten thousand, and 
a choir of three hundred singers was organized. The 
city pastors gave a most cordial support, and its populace, 
many of whom had seen their homes twice burnt to the 
ground, were eager to listen to the earnest messages of 
free salvation. The great northwest was now moved, as 
never before, especially when tidings came of the sudden 
death of Philip P. Bliss and his wife, at Ashtabula, on 
December 29. Within three months 4,800 converts 
were recorded in Chicago. 

The evangelical Christians of Boston had long been 
waiting on the Lord for a special blessing on their city. 
A permanent brick edifice was built on Tremont street, 
able to seat a congregation of six thousand. Dr. Tourjee 
gathered a body of two thousand Christian singers, and 
organized it into five distinct choirs. The thoughtful 
addresses of Rev. Joseph Cook were of use in preparing 
that cultured and critical city for the advent of the evan- 
gelists. And the result of the religious services was 



XXVI MOODY AND SANKEY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

almost beyond expectation. Instead of a single noon- 
meeting for prayer, seven or eight sprang up throughout 
the city, with numbers varying from two hundred to 
i, 500. Ninety churches co-operated in a house-to-house 
visitation, and two thousand visitors were enrolled into 
these bands of yoke-fellows. Throughout all New Eng- 
land, the quickened activities of the churches were un- 
mistakable. And the evangelical faith met a more re- 
spectful hearing from its thinking classes than had been 
witnessed for a hundred years. 



MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD. 



Shortly after his return to America Mr. Moody had 
decided to make Northfield his home, and for some years 
was kept busy planning and executing the erection of insti- 
tutes and schools that have in later years given Northfield 
a world reputation. 

Northfield is today the physical evidence of Moody's 
greatness as an educator as well as an evangelist. When 
in 1875 Moody, accompanied by Mr. Sankey, returned to 
America after an epoch-making tour of revivalism in Great 
Britain, it was expected that the evangelist would select 
Chicago for his home, as it had formerly been. But Moody 
had larger plans, and recognized that for the rest of his life 
he was to be a world evangelist without an abiding city. 
He would have to retire occasionally for a brief respite from 
his public labors and provide a shelter for his family. It 
was this twin purpose, as described by Mr. Moody himself, 
that first turned his thoughts to Northfield, his birthplace, 
as a permanent home. Nowhere could a more restful spot 
have been found. The trees which line the long, wide ave- 
nue in double rows on each side are tall and of vast girth 
and in the hottest days create ample shade. The old-fash- 
ioned white houses stand some distance from the road and 
from each other, and are mostly surrounded with lawns 
and flower beds. The old homestead which was Mr. 
Moody's birthplace was occupied by his mother until her 

xxvii 



XXV111 MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD. 

death a few years ago. It is a plain, old farmhouse, front- 
ing upon a country road which branches from the main 
street of the village and winds easterly up the hillside tow- 
ard a mountainous district. It looks out upon orchards 
and meadows and has a large tree in its front dooryard. 

When Mr. Moody decided to make a permanent home in 
Northfield he bought for about $3,000 a plain but roomy 
frame house, with grounds, at the north end of the town 
near his mother's house. The building fronts on the main 
road. To the building as Mr. Moody found it he made 
additions from time to time as they were required. His 
study was on the first floor near the entrance. Here was 
his working library. A fine clock, much admired by vis- 
itors, was sent to him by a lady in England who had been 
helped in the Christian life by Moody's illustration of a 
pendulum. Everything about the house was characterized 
by simplicity and the best conditions of effective work. In 
the heart of Northfield Rev. Dr. Pentecost of Brooklyn also 
purchased a commodious residence, and still further south 
is a modest white cottage which Mr. Sankey also bought 
and fitted up as a summer home, to be near his fellow 
evangelist. 

Mr. Moody was no sooner domiciled in Northfield than 
he began to turn his attention to remedying the lack of 
educational facilities for the young people of the neighbor- 
hood. He was still a tremendous worker in the outside 
evangelistic field, but whenever he returned to Northfield 
the desire to benefit the young with schooling facilities was 
uppermost. His own early education had been deficient, 
and it became a fixed purpose of his life to remove a similar 
deficiency for the new generation of young people growing 
up in Northfield and vicinity. He first planned a school 
for girls. He built a small addition to his own house, with 
room for eight girls, and when twenty girls had been ad- 



MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD. XXIX 

mitted to these cramped quarters, with others seeking 
entrance, he built a small brick dormitory and classroom 
on the other side of the street. This was also soon over- 
crowded, and Mr. Moody, with the help of H. N. F. Mar- 
shall, a retired Boston merchant, bought a hillside farm 
adjoining his own and his mother's holdings to the north. 
Plans for a building were begun and in 1879 the handsome 
brick building now known as East hall was erected. 

Its situation is more commanding than arty of the other 
buildings put up later. It affords a superb view to the 
west and north. The foreground is the eastern slope of 
the Connecticut valley and the river can be seen at inter- 
vals throughout many miles of its winding course. The 
western slope of the valley, partly wooded, culminates in a 
range of forest-clad hills. In the direction of Vermont is 
a wide landscape, fading into distant mountain peaks. East 
hall cost about $30,000, was designed as a dormitory and 
accommodates sixty students. The small brick building 
near Mr. Moody's house was for some time used in con- 
nestion with it as a recitation hall. An additional dormi- 
tory was remodeled out of a large dwelling house farther 
north and named Bonar hall, after Rev. Dr. Bonar of Glas- 
gow. This latter building was destroyed by fire in March, 
1886. 

From the first Mr. Moody had kept down the charge of 
board and tuition for his girls to $100 a year. The ex- 
pense for each student was about $160 a year, the balance 
being made up by benevolent contributions. Applications 
increased at such a rate that it was decided in 188 1 to build 
another large dormitory. Moody was himself absent in 
England during most of the next three years, but during 
his absence American friends and coworkers put up a large 
brick dormitory, costing about $60,000. The building was 
finshed in 1884 an d was named Marquand hall. Its site is 



XXX MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD. 

to the northwest of East hall. The building is used entirely 
as a dormitory and accommodates about eighty students. 
About midway between Marquand hall and East hall a 
handsome building of brick and granite, called Recitation 
hall, was completed in 1885. The cost of the latter build- 
ing, like a similar one afterward put up at Mount Hermon, 
was borne by the hymn-book fund. Moody used to say 
when pointing to either structure: "Air. Sankey sang that 
building up." 

In fitting up Recitation hall it was arranged that parti- 
tions could be removed and the whole thrown into one 
auditorium. This hall has been the scene of many of the 
most memorable gatherings in Xorthfield of later years. 
In the same building are chemical, physical and botanical 
laboratories. A library building has also been given by 
generous friends. Improvements have been made on the 
grounds, which now have a parklike aspect. Winding 
drives connect the buildings with the main thoroughfare. 
The seminary grounds include more than 250 acres. There 
is an artificial lake, whose cost was borne by John YYana- 
maker of Philadelphia. Many additions and improvements 
have been made within recent years, but the seminary rules 
are the same as at the institution's humble beginning. In- 
stead of scores the pupils are now numbered by hundreds. 
The curriculum is as thorough as in most girls' schools, 
with the addition of specific Christian training. A graduate 
of Wellesley college, Miss Ewlyn S. Hall, organized the 
original teaching staff, which is still noted for proficiency. 

While the Xorthfield seminary was still in its infant state 
Air. Moody decided to have also a school for boys. His 
first purchase for this end was a 400-acre farm in the town 
of Gill, about four miles from Xorthfield, in a southwest- 
erly direction, across the Connecticut. He bought 200 
acres first for $7,000 and a little later the other 200 acres 



MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD. XXXI 

for $5,500. The Connecticut River railroad traverses the 
site. The height upon which Mr. Moody decided to build 
his boys' school is now called Mount Hermon. There is 
a picturesque drive from Northfield to Mount Hermon. 
The river is crossed by a wire-rope ferry and there is tele- 
phone communication between the buildings of both insti- 
tutions. The money with which the Mount Hermon prop- 
erty was bought was the gift of Hiram Camp, who wrote 
his check for $25,000. 

At first the old farmhouses found upon the place were 
used as dormitories. A small wooden building was first 
put up to serve as a recitation hall. When more dormi- 
tory room was needed Mr. Moody concluded to try the 
family system. Instead of housing a large number of boys 
in one building they were divided into groups of not more 
than twenty and housed in small cottages, each under the 
charge of two matrons. In 1885 a large building of brick 
and granite, called Recitation hall, was completed and dedi- 
cated. It contains class and recitation rooms, library, 
chapel and museum. There is a splendid view from the 
cupola of this building. After a few years Mr. Moody 
changed his plans and raised the age of admission for his 
boys to 16 years and enlarged the course of study. This 
broke up the family system to some extent, and hew build- 
ings on a large scale were begun in 1885. In June, 1886, a 
large dormitory, called Crossley hall, was dedicated. Later 
a large brick dining hall was erected, and within recent 
years there have been many additions, making the Mount 
Hermon seminary one of the best equipped boys' schools 
in the east. 

Mr. Moody always had strong views as to the admission 
and training of his scholars of both sexes. At Mount Her- 
mon the cost of board and tuition was also placed at $100 
a year, so that none was barred on the ground of expense. 



XXX11 MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD. 

At Mount Hermon the students have always been required 
to perform a certain amount of manual labor in addition to 
class work. Some are employed on the farm, some in the 
laundry and some in housework. The students are for the 
most part a picked body of young, vigorous Christians, 
who have been drawn to Mr. Moody's school from all parts 
of the earth. There are students from Germany, Scandi- 
navia, Turkey, and even American Indians and Japanese. 
Of course the main body of students is of American extrac- 
tion, and a large proportion of them are in training for 
missionary work. Whenever he was at Northfield Mr. 
Moody gave regular courses of lectures at both of his 
schools, and distinguished educators from all other seats of 
learning have been frequent lecturers. 

Besides his schools, Northfield, under Mr. Moody's direc- 
tion, became the center of gatherings of religious workers, 
culminating in the famous summer conventions which were 
begun in 1880. For nine months of every year up to the 
last year of his life Mr. Moody was engrossed in arduous 
evangelistic labor in various parts of the country. His 
idea of a vacation was to throw himself into his Northfield 
educational work and to plan big conventions which made 
Northfield a summer city. He called his first convention 
of Christian workers in 1880. The only large building 
then constructed was the one now known as East hall, be- 
hind which a capacious camp was pitched. Under this 
canopy from day to day were held meetings whose influ- 
ence was world-wide. 

In 1 88 1 a convention was called for bible study and 
continued for thirty days. Rev. Dr. Bonar of Glasgow, 
who had just served as moderator of the general assembly 
of the Free church of Scotland, was a principal figure at 
this gathering. Dozens of equally prominent clergymen 
and evangelists attended and Mr. Sankey conducted the 



MR. MOODY AT NORTHFIELD. XXX111 

singing. For the next three years, owing to Mr. Moody's 
absence in England, there were no conventions, but in 1885 
there was another August convention. Every year since 
they have grown in interest. The attendance has averaged 
from 300 to 500 from a distance, and with the people of the 
vicinity the meetings often averaged 1,500. Moody was 
always the life and soul of these conventions and of late 
years many of the most prominent regular pastors in Eng- 
land and America have taken part. Special conventions 
of college students have also been held under Mr. Moody's 
personal leadership. Whether the great evangelist's death 
will lessen the fame of Northfield as a convention city is a 
melancholy problem for a host of his friends and co- 
workers. 



MR. MOODY'S SICKNESS AND DEATH. 



The famous evangelist was stricken with heart trouble 
in Kansas City on Nov. 16, 1899, while holding revival 
meetings at Convention hall. He was compelled to give 
up his work, and on the day following started east in the 
care of a physician. 

Mr. Moody addressed great crowds during his stay at 
Kansas City. The meetings began on Sunday, Nov. 12. 
The crowds were immense, thousands of people filling the 
hall afternoon and evening each day. The strain on Mr. 
Moody was great. He preached his last sermon on Thurs- 
day night, Nov. 16, fully 15,000 people listening to an ear- 
nest appeal which many stamped as one of the evangelist's 
greatest efforts. He was stricken the next morning at his 
hotel, but laughingly declared he was all right, and that he 
would be able to preach that afternoon. 

After he reached Northfield eminent physicians were con- 
sulted and everything was done to prolong life. 

Conscious up to the moment his eyes closed, well know- 
ing his last sleep was about to begin, he died at 1 1 :5o 
o'clock, Dec. 22, 1899. The end came quietly, peacefully, 
at his home in this village, which he loved so well and near 
to the scenes of many of his triumphs. 

Mr. Moody first knew that the end was very near at 8 
o'clock the previous night. He was satisfied that he would 



xxxiv 



MR. MOODY'S SICKNESS AND DEATH. XXXV 

not recover, and when the doctor confirmed his own opin- 
ion he said : 

"The world is receding and heaven opening." 

During the night Mr. Moody had a number of sinking 
spells. Despite his suffering he was kindness itself to 
those about him. At 2 o'clock in the morning Dr. N. P. 
Wood, the family physician, who slept in the house, was 
called at the request 'of Mr. Moody. The latter was per- 
spiring, and he requested his son-in-law, A. P. Fitt, who 
spent the night with him, to call the physician that he might 
note the symptoms. 

Dr. Wood administered a hypodermic injection of 
strychnia. This caused the heart to perform its duties 
more regularly, and Mr. Moody requested his son-in-law 
and Dr. Wood to retire. Mr. Moody's oldest son, Will R. 
Moody, who had been sleeping the first of the night, spent 
the last half hour with his father. 

At 7:30 o'clock in the morning Dr. Wood was again 
called. When he reached Mr. Moody's room he found 
his patient in a semi-conscious condition. When Mr. 
Moody recovered consciousness he said, with all his old 
vivacity : 

"What's the matter ; what's going on here ?" 

"Father, you haven't been quite so well, and so we came 
in to see you," a member of the family replied. A little 
later Mr. Moody said to his sons : 

"I have always been an ambitious man — not ambitious 
to lay up wealth, but to find work to do." 

Mr. Moody urged his two boys and Mr. Fitt to see that 
the schools at Northfleld, at Mount Hermon and the Chi- 
cago P)ible Institute should receive their best care. This 
they assured Mr. Moody they would do. 

During the forenoon Mrs. Fitt, his daughter, said to 
him: "Father, we can't spare you." Mr. Moody's reply 
was: 



XXXVI MR. MOODY S SICKNESS AND DEATH. 

"I'm not going to throw my life away. If God has more 
work for me to do I'll not die." 

Dr. Wood says Mr. Moody did not have the slightest 
fear of death. He was thoroughly conscious until within 
less than a minute of his death and told his family that as 
God called he was ready to go. iVt one time he told the 
attending physician not to give him any more medicine to 
revive him, as calling him back simply prolonged the agony 
for his family. In his closing hours there was no note of 
sadness, but one of triumph. 

Mr. Moody knew he was going, and he was most serene. 
Wednesday night he sent the members of his family out of 
his room and sent for his brother, and when the latter came 
in he said : 'You know what this means." He told his 
brother what he wanted done in many affairs. Friday at 
7 45 a. m., when alone with Will Moody, he said : "Earth 
is receding ; heaven is opening ; God is calling." Will told 
his father it was not as bad as that, and that he was dream- 
ing, but Mr. Moody replied : 'No, I am in the gates. I 
have seen the children,' referring to his two grandchildren, 
who died last year. 

"The family was hastily summoned, and as they gath- 
ered about his bed he said : 'No pain ! No valley ! Is this 
death? This isn't bad; it is sweet; this is bliss.' Later 
he said: 'This is my coronation day, and I have been look- 
ing forward to it for years.' Mrs. Moody seemed on the 
point of breaking down, and he said to her : 'Mamma, you 
were always afraid of sudden surprises. Brace yourself.' 

"He told his daughter, Mrs. Fitt, that he was going, and 
when she said they could not spare him he answered, sim- 
ply : 'God calls.' He was conscious almost to the last, but 
when the final summons came he was unconscious. His 
family knew when the end was close at hand, and all the 
members were present. His last breath was as one breath- 
ing in a peaceful sleep. 



MR. MOODY S SICKNESS AND DEATH. XXXV11 

Dr. Wood says the cause of his death was heart failure. 
He adds that the walls surrounding the heart were growing 
weaker and weaker. 

While it is true that Mr. Moody had symptoms of 
Bright's disease a few days ago, his death was due, the 
physicians say, to dilation of the heart. There had been 
dilation in a gradual way for the past nine years. The 
family had been told some time ago that Mr. Moody might 
get out and about, but still he was liable to drop away 
at any time. 

There were present in Mr. Moody's chamber when he 
died his wife, his daughter, Mrs. Fitt, and her husband, 
Mr. and Mrs. Will R. Moody, Paul Moody, the youngest 
son; Dr. N. P. Wood and Miss Powers, the nurse. Mrs. 
Moody has carried herself during the sickness of her hus- 
band with the greatest bravery and patience, but when 
death came she was prostrated. Will Moody's wife is a 
daughter of D. W. Whittle, the evangelist. Paul Moody 
is a student at Yale. 



FUNERAL AT EAST NORTHFIELD. 



The funeral, which was held at his late home Dec. 26, 
1899, was in keeping with his life. It was without show, 
yet was characterized by deep earnestness. The services 
at the house and at the grave were carried out according 
to his wishes, and the body was laid to rest in Little Round 
Top, where he had conducted so many meetings during his 
conference work. 

The services began with prayer at the house shortly 
after 10 o'clock in the morning. The Rev. Dr. C. J. Scho- 
field, pastor of the village church, read Mr. Moody's favor- 
ite texts from the scriptures, and the Rev. Dr. R. A. Torrey 
of the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, offered prayer. 
The service was held in the parlor and was attended by 
many of the men who had been associated with Mr. Moody 
in the last years of his .work. In the chamber directly 
overhead was the family, with the body of the deceased.- 
Outside were gathered thirty-two members of Mr. Moody's 
school. 

At the close of the service they placed the casket on a bier 
thirty feet long and ten feet wide and covered with black, 
and bore it to the Congregational church, a mile distant. 
A. P. Fitt, who married Mr. Moody's only daughter, scat- 
tered white roses over the casket and bier before the pro- 
cession started for the church. In advance of the students 

xxxviii 



FUNERAL AT EAST NORTHFIELD. XXXIX 

carrying the bier walked the Rev. Dr. Schofield and the 
Rev. Dr. Torrey, and in the rear were those who had been 
among Mr. Moody's closest friends and associates in his 
life work, among them Ira D. Sankey. 

Close to Mr. Sankey were George C. Stebbins and D. B. 
Tower, who for years had led the singing at Mr. Moody's 
Northfield conferences. Other well-known men in the 
procession were R. C. Morse, representing the International 
Young Men's Christian Association ; Dr. W. Mc Williams 
of New Jersey, and W. J. Ordman and George C. Need- 
ham of Philadelphia. 

It had been arranged that the body should lie in state 
at the church from 10 o'clock until after the service, but it 
was nearly noon before the sorrowful procession arrived. 
The body was placed in front of the little old-fashioned 
pulpit and the casket opened. On the plate was the in- 
scription : 



DWIGHT L. MOODY, 1837-1899. 



A floral offering from the bible institute of Chicago was 
placed at the foot of the casket, but there was no marked 
display of flowers in the church, it being Mr. Moody's wish 
that there should not be. The little church was crowded 
to the doors, all classes and conditions being represented. 
Mr. Moody's favorite hymn, "Rock of Ages," was sung by 
the Mount Hermon male quartet. 

The eulogy was delivered by the Rev. C. J. Schofield, 
who said of the dead evangelist: 

"We are met, dear friends, not to mourn a defeat^ but 
to celebrate a triumph. 'He walked with God, and he was 
not, for God took him.' There in the west, in the presence 
of great audiences of 10,000 of his fellowmen, God spoke 
to him to lav it all down and come home. He would have 



XL FUNERAL AT EAST NORTHFIELD. 

planned it so. This is not the place, nor am I the man to 
present a study of the life and character of Dwight L. 
Moody. No one will ever question that we are to-day 
laying in the kindly bosom of the earth the mortal body 
of a great man. 

"Whether we measure greatness by character, by quali- 
ties of intellect, or by things alone, Dwight L. Moody must 
be accounted great. The basis of Mr. Moody's character 
was sincerity, genuineness. He had an inveterate aversion 
to all forms of sham, unreality and pretense. Most of all 
did he detest religious pretense, cant. 

"Along with this fundamental quality Mr. Moody cher- 
ished a great love of righteousness. His first question 
concerning any proposed action was Ts it right?' but these 
two qualities, necessarily at the bottom of all noble char- 
acters, were in him suffused and transfigured by divine 
grace. Besides all this, Mr. Moody was in a wonderful 
degree brave, magnanimous and unselfish. Doubtless this 
unlettered New England country boy became what he was 
by the grace of God. 

"The secret of Dwight L. Moody's power lay: First, in 
a definite experience of Christ's saving grace. He had 
passed out of death into life and he knew it. Secondly, 
Mr. Moody believed in the divine authority of the scrip- 
tures. The bible was to him the verse of God, and he made 
it resound as such in the conscience of men. Thirdly, he 
was baptized with the Holy Spirit and knew that he was. It 
was to him as definite an experience as his conversion. 
Fourthly, he was a man of prayer. He believed in a living 
and unfettered God. But, fifthly, Mr. Moody believed in 
work, in ceaseless effort, in wise provision, in the power 
of organization, of publicity. 

"I like to think of Dwight L. Moody in heaven. I like 
to think of him with his Lord, an4 with Elijah, Daniel, Paul, 



THE FUNERAL AT EAST NORTHFIELD. XL1 

Augustine, Luther, Wesley and Finney. Farewell, for a 
little time, great heart. May a double portion of the spirit 
be vouchsafed to us who remain." 

The Rev. Mr. Torrey followed Dr. Schofield. His 
eulogy was based upon Mr. Moody's life exemplifying the 
grace of God. Following Mr. Torrey, remarks were made 
by the Rev. H. G. Weston of Crozier Theological seminary, 
Chester, Pa. ; the Rev. A. T. Pierson of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; 
Bishop Mallalieu of Boston and the Rev. J. W. Chapman 
of New York. 

The body was then carried to the burial place at Round 
Top. The chorus sang "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," and 
after prayer and a benediction the body was lowered to its 
resting place. 



IRA DAVID SANKEY. 



In the good providence of God, the gospel preacher 
was given the gospel singer, that they might go forth to- 
gether, like the first disciples sent out by the Lord — double 
for fellowship, single in heart; to labor as yoke-fellows 
in the harvest-field in the world. The first, as we have 
seen, had been trained in the rugged school of adversity 
and self-denial, that he might bebold, self-reliant, patient, 
fearless, venturesome in deeds of faith, and tireless in 
labors of love, His companion, on the contrary, was 
reared under the hallowing influences of a happy, Chris- 
tian homestead, so that his whole character was mellowed 
by the sweetening experiences of a childhood and man- 
hood developed harmoniously and joyously. So strangely 
diverse was their training as individuals, yet so wisely 
ordered were all the events of these isolated lives by the 
Master's hand, these two Christian workers, when joined 
together and tested, were found to be admirably fitted 
to supplement each other's deficiencies, and thus to con- 
stitute a human instrumentality which the Lord could 
use for glorifying Himself and extending His kingdom 
upon earth. 

XLli 




IRA D. SANKEY PRESIDING AT THE ORGAN 



IRA DAVID SANKEY. XLlll 

Ira David Sankey was born on the 28th of August, 
1840. His birthplace was the village of Edinburgh, 
Lawrence county, in western Pennsylvania. On the 
paternal side, he came of English stock, and on the ma- 
ternal of Scotch-Irish. His parents were natives of Mer- 
cer county, and were members of the Methodist Episco- 
pal church. Out of their family of nine children, only 
three sons and one daughter grew up to maturity. David, 
the father, was well off in worldly circumstances, and in 
such good repute among his neighbors that they re- 
peatedly elected him a member of the state legislature. 
He was also a licensed exhorter of his own church. Thus 
the means and the character of this household were such 
as to insure ample advantages for culture in general 
knowledge and spiritual truth. 

Ira, from his childhood, was noted for his joyous spirit 
and trustful disposition. The sunshiny face that is so 
attractive in his public ministry has been a distinguishing 
feature from early boyhood, and very early won him the 
praise of being " the finest little fellow in the neighbor- 
hood." His father states, " There was nothing very re- 
markable in his early or boyhood history. The gift of 
singing developed in him at a very early age. I say gift, 
because it was God-given; he never took lessons from 
any one, but his taste for music was such that when a 
small boy he could make passable music on almost any 
kind of instrument." An old Scotch farmer, named Frazer, 
early interested himself in the little lad, and of his good 
influence Mr. Sankey thus spoke, at a children's meeting, 
held in the town of Dundee, Scotland. "The very first 
recollection I have of anything pertaining to religious 
life was in connection with him. I remember he took 



XL1V IRA DAVID SANKEY. 

me by the hand, along with his own boys, to the Sab- 
bath-school, that old place which I shall remember to 
my dying day. He was a plain man, and I can see him 
standing up and praying for the children. He had a 
great, warm heart, and the children all loved him. It 
was years after that when I was converted, but my im- 
pressions were received when I was very young from 
that man." 

Thus reared in a genial, religious atmosphere, liked 
and respected by all who knew him and accepted as a 
leader by his boyish comrades, Ira lived on till past his 
fifteenth year, before his soul was converted to Christ. 
His conviction as a sinner occurred while he attended a 
series of special services, held in a little church, three 
miles from his home, and of which Rev. H. H. Moore was 
then pastor. At first, he was as gay as his curious com- 
panions. But an earnest Christian met him each evening 
with a few soul-searching words; and after a week's hard 
struggle, he came as a sinner to the Savior and found 
peace in acceptance. Soon after, when his father re- 
moved to Newcastle, to assume the presidency of the 
bank, Ira became a member of the Methodist church 
and also a pupil at the academy at Newcastle. 

This young Christian was richly endowed with a talent 
for singing spiritual songs. His pure, beautiful voice 
gave a clear utterance to the emotions of his sympathetic, 
joyous nature, and was potent in carrying messages from 
his heart to the hearts of his hearers. It now became 
his delight to devote this precious gift to the service of 
his Lord, and it was his continual prayer that the Holy 
Spirit would bless the words sung to the conversion of 
those who flocked to the services to hear him. Before 



IRA DAVID SANKEY. XLV 

he attained his majority, he was appointed superintend- 
ent of the Sunday-school, which contained above three 
hundred scholars; and it was blessed with a continual re- 
vival. His singing of the gospel invitations in solos 
dates from this time. The sweet hymns were sung 
in the very spirit of prayer, and the faith of the 
singer was rewarded with repeated blessings. A class of 
seventy Christians was committed to his charge, and 
this weighty responsibility made him a more earnest 
student of the Holy Bible. He encouraged his class to 
tell him of their condition in Bible language, as texts 
abounded for every state of grace, and every description 
of religious feeling. The choir of the congregation also 
came under his leadership. Young as he was, he insisted 
on conduct befitting praise-singers in the house of God, 
and on a clear enunciation of each word sung. 

The congenial religious duties were suspended for a 
time by the call of the nation to arms upon the fall of 
Fort Sumpter. Mr. Sankey was among the first to vol- 
unteer for three months, and he served out his term of 
enlistment. Even in camp he gathered about him a 
band of singers, and was an earnest worker in the prayer- 
meetings of soldiers. Upon his return home, he became 
an assistant to his father as collector of internal revenue. 
He held that position with credit till his voluntary resig- 
nation, nearly ten years later. On the ninth of Septem- 
ber, 1863, he was married to Miss Edwards, a helpful 
member of his choir, and teacher in his school. Their 
happy family now contains three sons, of whom the 
youngest was born in Scotland, while the eldest, Henry, 
is already a boy evangelist, 

Mr. Sankey is an artless, and not an artistic singer. 



XLV1 IRA DAVID SANKEY. 

It has chanced that he has never studied music under a 
cultured teacher, and hence he has always relied upon 
his intuitive genius for song. He sings just like a nightin- 
gale, and pours forth his whole heart in a flood of melo- 
dy. And he does this, not for the sake of winning praise 
for the skill of his execution, or for the beauty of his rich 
baritone voice. Such a use would be a profanation of 
the talent which he has dedicated to the service of his 
Savior. His sole aspiration is that his song may be 
blessed to the bearing of gospel truth into the hearts of 
his audience. Hence he makes each articulation dis- 
tinct and audible, sings with the whole wealth of his 
heart, and hallows the hymn for good unto souls by se- 
cret prayer. 

As he sought only to honor his Lord, the latter has 
honored him before men. Conventions and other re- 
ligious gatherings became eager to have him lead their 
services of praise, and he kept all such engagements with- 
out making any charge. He assisted in organizing a 
Young Men's Christian association at Newcastle, and 
was elected president. In June, 1871, he was appointed 
its delegate to the international convention, which met 
in Indianapolis. It was there that he first met Mr. 
Moody, and heard a call from him to give his whole time 
henceforth to working for the Master. At the early 
prayer-meeting, the singing was dull and doleful, until 
Mr. Sankey was called forward to act as leader. His 
sweet voice and fervid spirit at once brought the bold 
evangelist to his side. " Where do you live ?" asked Mr. 
Moody, bluntly. " In Newcastle, Pennsylvania." "Are 
you married?" "Yes." "How many children have 
you?" "One." "I want you." " What for? " "To 



IRA DAVID SANKEY. XLV11 

help me in my work in Chicago." "I cannot leave my 
business." " You must; I have been looking for you for 
the last eight years. You must give up your business, 
and come to Chicago with me." " I will think of it; I 
will pray over it; I will talk it over with my wife." 

Prayer and reflection deepened the conviction which 
this call made on Mr. Moody's heart. With painful re- 
luctance, he -severed the associations so dear to him, at 
his home, and in the spirit of faith joined Mr. Moody in 
his vast labors as an evangelist in Chicago. His tender 
sympathy and loving manner qualified him to give just 
the sweet melody needed to modulate the fiery boldness 
of the lay preacher. Here they worked together in har- 
mony, and were blessed with many souls as their hire, 
until the city of Chicago was swept by a storm of fire in 
the following October. These companions then lost all 
their possessions and had to separate. Mr. Sankey now 
rejoined his family in Pennsylvania, and set about sing- 
ing for conventions again, until a telegram from Mr. 
Moody, three months later, to " come at once," recalled 
him to the work of the new tabernacle in Chicago. This 
disaster strengthened instead of shattering the trustful 
faith of these evangelists, for it opened the hearts of the 
people more readily to receive their message of the Savior's 
love, and made the frame building a sanctuary for re- 
lieving the bodily and spiritual wants of multitudes of the 
homeless. 

Just in the midst of this season of trial Mr. Sankey 
was very much encouraged by the testimony of a little 
dying girl. This incident, which was destined to have 
an effect upon his whole after life, was thus narrated by 
him at Dundee, Scotland. ' ' I want to speak a word 



XLV111 IRA DAVID SANKEY. 

about singing, not only to little folks, but to grown peo- 
ple. During the winter, after the great Chicago fire, 
when the place was built up with little frame houses for 
the people to stay in, a mother sent for me, one day, to 
come and see her little child, who was one of our Sab- 
bath-school scholars. I remembered her very well, hav- 
ing seen her in the meetings very frequently, and was 
glad to go. She was lying in one of those poor little 
huts, everything having been burned in the fire. I ascer- 
tained that she was past all hope of recovery, and that they 
were waiting for the little one to pass away. ' How is it 
with you to-day?' I asked. With a beautiful smile on 
her face, she said, ' It is all well with me to-day. I wish 
you would speak to my father and my mother.' 'But,' 
said I, ' are you a Christian?' ' Yes.' ' When did you be- 
come one?' Do you remember last Thursday in the ta- 
bernacle, when we had that little singing meeting, and 
you sang, "Jesus loves even me?" 'Yes.' 'It was last 
Thursday. I believed on the Lord Jesus, and now I am 
going to be with Him to-day.' That testimony from that 
little child in that neglected quarter of Chicago has done 
more to stimulate me and bring me to this country 
than all that the papers or any persons might say. I re- 
member the joy I had in looking upon that beautiful 
face. She went up to heaven, and no doubt said she 
learned upon earth that Jesus loved her from that little 
hymn. If you want to enjoy a blessing, go to the bed- 
sides of these bedridden and dying ones, and sing to them 
of Jesus, for they cannot enjoy these meetings as you do. 
You will get a great blessing to your own souls." 

The joy of having this first convert through his own 
ministry of song led the gospel singer to a more thor- 



IRA DAVID SANKEY. XLlX 

ough reliance on the leading of his Master, and a still 
deeper study of God's word. When Mr. Moody paid a 
visit to England in the spring of 1872, his yoke-fellow 
was naturally left to act as leader in the services at the 
tabernacle. His leisure hours, at this time, were spent 
in gathering a number of spirited hymns that appeared 
to be adapted for evangelistic services, and in fitting a 
few of them with appropriate music. These were ar- 
ranged into a "Musical Scrap Book," and that was the 
only book, besides his Bible, that he took with him on 
the voyage of faith across the Atlantic. Among these 
sacred songs were P. P. Bliss' "Hold the Fort," " Jesus 
Loves Even Me," and " Free from the Law;" Mrs. Dr. 
Griswold's " We're Going Home To-morrow;" Mrs. E. 
Codner's " Lord I hear Showers of Blessing;" Mrs. 
W. S. Ackerman's " Nothing but Leaves;" Rev. S. Low- 
ry's " Shall we Gather at the River?" Miss Anna War- 
ner's "One More Day's Work for Jesus;" Kate Har- 
sley's " I Love to Tell the Story; " Mrs. A. S. Hawks' 
" I Need Thee Every Hour; " Mrs. Lydia Baxter's 
" Take the Name of Jesus with You;" Mrs. Emily S. 
Oakey's " Sowing the Seed by the Daylight Fair; " Fan- 
ny J. Crosby's "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" and "Pass 
Me Not, O Gentle Savior;" Rev. Joseph H. Gilmore's 
" He Leadeth Me; " and Rev. W. W. Walford's "Sweet 
Hour of Prayer." 

Two other chief favorites of his selection were " Nine- 
ty and Nine" and "Jesus of Nazareth PassethBy." The 
first of these was written' by Miss Eliza C. Clephane, of 
Melrose, Scotland, in 1868, and was printed a little 
while before her death, in the Daily Treasury, edited by 
Dr. Arnott. Six years elapsed before it came, providen- 



L IRA DAVID SANKEY. 

tially, to Mr. Sankey's notice, while he was in Scotland. 
It chanced that he bought among other religious week- 
lies a copy of The Christian Age, of London, of the date 
of May 13, 1874, and found the "Ninety and Nine" re- 
printed as a poetical waif. He was at once so im- 
pressed with its value for his mission of gospel song that 
he composed an air for it, and sang it three days later in 
the Free Assembly hall, Edinburgh. A letter of thanks 
from the sister of the poet gave him the facts of its au- 
thorship, and led to receipt of one other precious hymn, 
" Beneath the Cross of Jesus." Miss Campbell was the 
author of "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." Her heart 
was deeply moved by a revival at Newark, N. J., in 
1864, and her imagination was fired by an address by R. 
G. Pardee, on the reply to blind Bartimeus: "They 
told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." The 
second stanza is given herewith, as it is omitted in the 
common version: 

" E'en children feel the potent spell, 

And haste their new-found joy to tell; 

In crowds they to the place repair 

Where Christians daily bow in prayer, 

Hosanna's mingle with the cry; 

' Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.' " 

In the spring of 1873, two paths of usefulness were 
opened to the choice of Mr. Sankey. His brother evan- 
gelist desired his aid for a gospel visitation to Great 
Britain, while Philip Phillips offered him brilliant pros- 
pects for a singing term of six months on the Pacific 
coast. His decision was destined to be of great moment 
to the welfare of his generation. He looked to prayer 
for guidance, and then was led to adopt this advice of a 
friend: " Two workers in the same line, especially two 
singers, are sure not to agree. Go with Moody; then 
you can do your work, and he can do his, and there will 
be no occasion of conflict between vou." So attended 



IRA DAVID SANKEY. Ll 

by his little family, he trustfully set forth on a journey 
of four thousand miles, on a mission of gospel evangel- 
ization which was to attain far grander results for good 
than one could dare to hope. 

The joyous, prayerful singing of the gospel in hymns 
by Mr. Sankey came like a revelation of unexpected 
truth and grace to the Scottish and English peoples. In 
Scotland, especially, to the sujprise of all who are ac- 
quainted with the cautious, distrustful and clannish char- 
acter of the followers of John Knox, the masses were 
moved with an indiscribable impulse. The unimpas- 
sioned worshipers, who had been accustomed for gener- 
ations to reject as uninspired all other services of praise 
than their own rude, unpoetic version of the psalms, 
now listened with a hungry delight to the testimonies of 
the most gifted Christian singer of the age, His intense 
earnestness made the old, old story enter as a divine 
message into the consciences and hearts of those who 
came to hear him out of curiosity, or as doubters. Thus 
the singing of hymns and the use of a melodeon as an ac- 
companiment were welcomed at sight with a heartiness 
that dissipated the prejudicies of centuries. 

One of his hearers, Mrs. Barbour, thus described the 
abiding impressions made on his audiences at Edinburgh: 
"Mr. Sankey sings with the conviction that souls are 
receiving Jesus between one note and the next. The still- 
ness is overawing; some of the lines are more spoken than 
sung. The hymns are equally used for awakening, none 
more than 'Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.' When you 
hear the ' Ninety and Nine ' sung, you know of a truth 
that down in this corner, up in that gallery, behind that 
pillar which hides the singer's face from the listener, the 



Lll IRA DAVID SANKEY. 

hand of Jesus has been finding this and that and yonder 
lost one, to place them in His fold. A certain class of 
hearers come to the services solely to hear Mr. Sankey, 
and the song throws the Lord's net around them. We 
asked Mr. Sankey one day what he was tc sing. He 
said, ' I'll not know till I hear how Mr. Moody is clos- 
ing.' Again, we were driving to the Canongate Parish 
church one winter night, and Mr. Sankey said to the 
young minister who had come for him, ' I'm thinking of 
singing, ' I am so glad to night.' ' O,' said the young 
man, please do rather sing, 'Jesus of Nazareth.' An old 
man told me to-day that he had been awakened by it the 
last night you were down. He said, ' It just went through 
me like an electric shock.' A gentleman in Edinburgh 
was in distress of soul, and happened to linger in a pew 
after the noon meeting. The choir had remained to 
practice, and began ' Free from the Law, O happy con- 
dition.' Quickly the Spirit of God carried that truth 
home to the awakened conscience, and he was at rest in 
the finished work of Jesus." 

"The wave of sacred song," she added, "has spread 
over Ireland, and it is now sweeping through England. 
But, indeed, it is not being confined to the United King- 
dom alone. Far away off on the shores of India, and in 
many other lands, these sweet songs of a Savior's love 
are being sung. Mr. Sankey's collection of sacred songs 
has been translated into five or six languages, and are 
winging their way into tens of thousands of hearts and 
homes, and the blessing of the Lord seems to accompany 
them wherever sung. " 

At a noonday prayer-meeting, when the hymn 

" Sowing the seed by the daylight fair," 



IRA DAVID SANKEY. ' Llll 

was announced for singing, Mr. Sankey spoke as fol- 
lows: " Before we sing this hymn, I will tell you one 
reason why we should sing these hymns. It is because 
God is blessing them to many a poor wanderer who 
comes to this building night after night. Last week a 
man who had once occupied a high position in life came 
into this hall, and sat down. While I was singing this 
hymn he took out his pass-book and wrote out these 
words — 

'* 'Sowing the seed of a lingering pain, 
Sowing the seed of a maddening brain, 
Sowing the seed of a tarnished name, 
Sowing the seed of eternal shame; 
O, what shall the harvest be?' " 

"Last night, that man in the inquiry-room went on 
his knees, and asked God to break the chain that had 
dragged him down from such a high position to the low- 
est of the low. He said he had resolved when he went 
out of that praise-meeting that he would cease to indulge 
in the intoxicating cup; but before he went home he went 
into a saloon, and broke his resolution. We prayed for 
him last night. He is now praying that God may break 
his chain. I want to pray that this brand may be 
plucked from the burning, and that God may use these 
gospel hymns to turn the hearts of sinful men." 

A touching account has been given in an English jour- 
nal of the last hours of a young girl only ten years old, 
who had listened in delight to Mr. Sankey's singing. 
" O, how I love those dear hymns," said she. "When 
I am gone, mother, will you ask the girls of the school 
to sing the hymn: 



L1V IRA DAVID SANKEY. 

" 'Ring the bells of heaven! there is joy to-day, 
For a soul returning from the wild; 
See! the father meets him out upon the way, 
Welcoming his weary wandering child.' " 

The night before her death she said: "Dear father 
and mother, I hope I shall meet you in heaven! I am 
so happy mother! You cannot think how bright and 
happy I feel." Again, " Perhaps Jesus may send me to 
fetch some of my brothers and sisters. I hope He will 
send me to fetch you, mother." 

Half an hour before her departure, she exclaimed, 
"O, mother, hark at the bells of heaven! they are 
ringing so beautifully." 

Then, closing her eyes awhile, presently she cried 
again, "Hearken to the harps! they are most splendid. 
O, how I wish you could hear them!" 

Then, shortly after, she spoke again, "O mother, 
I see the Lord Jesus and the angels! O, if you could 
see them too! He is sending one to fetch me!" 

She had been counting the hours and minutes since 
she had heard the mill-bell at half-past one p. M. , long- 
ing so earnestly to depart, yet expressed a hope she might 
see her dear father (then absent at work) before she went. 
At last, just five minutes or so before her expiring breath, 
she said, 4 ' O mother, lift me up from the pillow — high, 
high up! O, I wish you could lift me right up into 
heaven!" Then, almost immediately after, as doubtless 
conscious that the parting moment was at hand, " Put 
me down again — down quick!" Then calmly, brightly, 
joyously, gazing upward as at some vision of surprising 
beauty, she peacefully, sweetly, triumphantly breathed 
forth her precious spirit into the arms of the ministering 
angels whom Jesus had sent to fetch her; and so was for- 
ever with the Lord she loved. 




Daniel Confounding the Priests of Bel. 



MOODY'S 
NEW GOSPEL SERMONS. 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



I suppose there is not a real Christian here, this after- 
noon, but that has a desire to be used of God. If you 
have no desire, no longing for usefulness, I should say 
there is something wrong in your life. It seems to me 
that the first impulse, the first aim of a new-born soul is 
service. " What shall I do? I want to do something." 
This desire is not of gratitude to Him who has saved you. 
I cannot conceive of a subject more important than the 
one before us. When Christ had finished his work, the 
last thing He did was to teach His disciples of the 
coming of the Holy Spirit, and what He would do when 
He came. When He handed over His work to them, 
then it was He told them that the Spirit was coming 
to help and to work with them. It was this that helped 
those early Christians, and it will help us. There is 
not a man or woman to-day who may not be helped 
if he will. But first, there must be a willing mind and 
heart; we must know the mind of the Holy Spirit, give 
ourselves up wholly, to be led and guided and filled with 
the Spirit. 

447 



448 Moody's sermons. 

Now, in the first place, it is well for us to remember 
that the Holy Spirit is a person. I think I was a Chris- 
tian for a number of years before I knew that. If I had 
ever heard it, it had slipped from me and left no impres- 
sion. I remember, the first time I was awakened upon 
this subject while listening to an old minister talking about 
honoring the Holy Ghost. I had always up to that time 
looked upon Him in the light of one of the attributes, 
like justice, mercy, love. But when this old divine talked 
about His personality, I really thought the old man had 
gone a little out of his head. It seemed so strange that 
I had never heard of it before! I went home and read 
my Bible in order to find out everything that the book 
said about the Holy Spirit. I found that it always spoke 
of the spirit as " He," never as an influence. There is 
one verse in the fourteenth chapter of John, where the 
word " He" occurs four times. I haven't time to dwell 
upon the personality of the Holy Ghost, and will not say 
anything more about it. I only want you to understand 
that He is distinct from the Father and the Son. When 
Jesus came down to the earth, the work that He did was 
distinct from the work of the Father. 

But now let us come to what His work is. In the first 
place His work is to convict of sin. You often hear people 
say, k< Why is it so few people are converted under our 
minister? He is cultured, refined, intellectual, eloquent, 
but yet there seem to be very few conversions." Well, 
now, my dear friends, if you are going to look to your 
ministers to convict and convert people,' you are going to 
be disappointed. It is the work of the Holy Ghost to 
convict of sin. I have often said that I had rather do 
almost any manual work than that which I am doing, if 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRITo 449 

I have got to convict the people of sin. It is God's work 
to carry home conviction to the heart, not man's work. 
When He shall come, He shall convict and convince men 
of sin. I have seen people who, when the spirit of God 
has been working mightily, would get up and go out, 
and slam the door after them in a bad passion. Not 
a bad sign. I would a good deal rather have them do 
that than make no sign at all. 

When I was preaching in Philadelphia, some time ago, 
a man and his wife attended my lecture one night. They 
went home, and the man went to bed without speaking 
to his wife. The next morning he got up, and ate his 
breakfast, and went off without saying a word to her. 
All that day she moaned, that she had made a mistake 
in taking her husband to the meetings. He came home 
at noon and did not speak to her, and at night again. 
And he kept that up for a whole week. At the end of 
the week he said, ''Wife, why did you tell Mr. Moody 
all about me? " His wife replied that she had not spoken 
a word to Mr. Moody about him. " Then you must have 
written him about me." "No, I haven't written him 
anything about you." " Well, then, he must have heard 
it from some one else. That impudent wretch held me 
up before thousands of people and told them all about 
me." 

Well, then, after a man has been convinced of his sins 
and is willing to give them up, the next thing the Spirit 
does is to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts. A 
great many people are always trying to make themselves 
love God. You cannot do it. Love must be spontaneous. 
You cannot love by trying to make yourself love. You 
have got to have power, and that power comes from the 



450 Moody's sermons. 

Spirit. When we have that love, then we have the 
spirit of Jesus Christ. Once I asked a lady who was 
mourning, because she didn't love God, if she loved her 
mother. She said, "Yes, I cannot help it." "Well," 
I said, "that is it exactly." When that heart has been 
filled with the spirit of God, you cannot help loving Him. 
But you cannot make yourself love. More love is just 
what we want to-day. If you should ask me what the 
church needs, I should say " love." 

Then another thing that the spirit does is to impart 
hope. You never saw the spirit of God working in a 
church that wasn't hopeful. Another thing the spirit of 
God does, is to give liberty. Where the spirit is, there 
is liberty. In a good deal of our church work there is 
almost everything but liberty. A good deal of our work 
is forced work. Sometimes it takes a good deal of 
strength to get out a word. Why? Because the atmos- 
phere isn't right. The Holy Spirit has got to have the 
right atmosphere to work in. You take the atmosphere 
out of this room, and my voice wouldn't be heard three 
feet away from me. You have got to have air to convey 
sound, and you have got to have the spirit prepare the 
ground in order to carry home the truth. If you get into 
a certain atmosphere where the spirit isn't working, you 
will not have liberty. 

If a minister hasn't got liberty, it isn't always his fault. 
I want to emphasize that. The fault may be down there 
in the audience. I venture to say that an archangel 
couldn't have had liberty under such circumstances. Why? 
Because of the fault-finding, back-biting and criticism. 
Supposing Andrew and Philip had a row and were, not 
on speaking terms, do you think there would have been 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 45 1 

any liberty? There is not the right atmosphere, and, 
I do not care who you put in the pulpit, there will be no 
liberty. You want some new church members down there. 
You get them straight, and the minister will be all right. 
Supposing James had turned to John and said, " John, 
I really don't think Peter is preaching as well to-day as 
usual"; and John had replied, "Why, he has the most 
influential congregation I ever saw. The greatest men 
of the city are here. " I will venture to say that you have 
had ten thousand better sermons preached than Peter 
ever preached. Suppose those people had gone on pick- 
ing Peter to pieces. Do you think there would have 
been any power? But the one hundred and twenty held 
Peter right up to God, and, if you will allow me to use 
the expression, he swung loose that day. It takes neither 
brains nor heart to find fault. Anybody can do that. If you 
doubt what I say, just go into a crowd and. hear a stranger 
talk. You will hear it said, " Well, what do you think of 
him?" "I must confess that I was greatly disappointed. 
He isn't as good as our own minister." Another comes 
along and says, ' ' He wasn't logical. I have a logical 
turn of mind, and when I go to church I want to hear 
logic!" Another says, " He wasn't philosophical. Don't 
know what it means, but philosophy is what he wants. " 
Another says, " It was all brain. Now, I am using my 
brain all day long, and when I go to church, I want some 
one to appeal to my heart." 

I wish we could get this spirit of criticism out of the 
church, and then there would be something done. But 
perhaps the fault is not with the man in the pulpit. When 
you go home and look in the looking-glass, perhaps you 
will see the guilty person. What he wants is to get out 



452 MOODY S SERMONS. 

of the business of fault-finding. It is a poor business, 
my friend. Just get to praying. You need the spirit of 
God just as much as the minister. You business men 
need it; the Sunday-school teachers need it; there are 
men and women who confess God, who need it. You will 
have liberty to walk and talk with, and work for Christ, 
if you have His spirit. 

His work is also to testify of Christ. What we want 
to-day is love of Christ. That's all. Let these ministers 
go into the pulpits and lift up Christ, and let speculation 
go. The world can get on without speculation and 
theories, but this old world cannot go on without Jesus 
Christ. Therefore we want to preach Him and hold 
Him up. There is no class of men that Jesus Christ 
won't draw, if He is lifted up. 

Then, another thing the spirit of God does is to teach 
you. " He shall teach you all things. " He is a wonder- 
ful teacher. There is not a thing that I want to know 
about future life that God cannot teach me. Any spirit 
that does not want that book, you may know is a lying 
spirit. " He shall teach you all things." Now, if we 
have got a teacher sent down here from heaven, to teach 
us all things, are we not dishonoring Him if we run after 
other teachers? People often come to me and ask me to 
go to other teachers, call up some departed spirits, and 
have the chairs and tables turning around. I tell them, 
" No." When the Lord converted me, He took me out 
of darkness. In secret, my Master taught nothing. I 
don't want anything of these teachers that are going to 
teach us in the dark. I don't know what they are. They 
may come from hell. 



THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 453 

And then He shall guide you into all truth. Wonderful 
guide, isn't He? That is what He is down here for, to 
guide us through the wilderness. He is here to look 
after us. 

Now, I want to call your attention to a fact. You 
never in your life saw a man full of God who wasn't full 
of Scripture. 

You see a minister in the pulpit that is filled with the 
spirit of God, and he will talk Scripture right along. Mary 
was filled with the Holy Ghost, and that Magnificat flowed 
from her lips. And any man full of the Holy Ghost 
will talk Scripture. 

I believe Christ never spoke of His death but what He 
said, "On the third day I will rise again." And yet, 
when the time came His disciples had forgotten all about 
those words. It has always been a mystery to me where 
the family of Bethany was. You would have thought 
they would have remembered and been at His grave. 
His enemies had better memories than His own disciples. 
They were at the door of the sepulcher; but they never 
did a better thing for Christianity than to roll that stone 
up against the door. 

But when the Holy Ghost came, then we are told that 
they remembered the words of the Lord Jesus. Their 
memory was long enough then. I tell you, when you 
are filled with the spirit of God, Scripture will come rush- 
ing into your mind. One text upon another, comes 
rushing into your mind saying, " Use me, use me." 

And then, " He shall comfort you." There is not a 
broken heart to-day that He cannot make whole. There 
is not a sorry one that He will not comfort. "If I go 
not away, the Comforter will not come." 



454 Moody's sermons. 

I want to say to the singers, that there is great honor 
put upon music. When the Levites were praising God, 
then it was that the Shekinah came and filled the temple 
with glory. If the members of the choir had been at 
enmity with each other, and had not been on speaking 
terms, do you think there would have been any harmony? 
You want your singing in harmony with the preaching, 
and the singer wants to keep his heart as well tuned as 
the minister, if he is going to sing well. I don't know 
what angel it was that got down to the plains to tell the 
shepherds that Christ had come, but I have an idea that 
it was Gabriel. But they sung, " Glory to God in the 
Highest; Peace on earth, Good will toward men." And 
let me say to the singers that I believe they are doing as 
much as I am. You sing the gospel, and I will preach 
it. I believe John Wesley did as much good as Charles. 
One preached and the other sung the gospel, halfway 
around the world in a very short time. I believe I 
should be at my wits' ends if you asked me to quote any- 
thing that Charles Wesley ever said, but I think I could 
repeat several of John Wesley's hymns. Let us praise 
God as well as pray. Let us be thankful for what we 
have got. 

Sometimes, when we get to praying, the Holy Ghost 
comes. I like to go into a meeting when you cannot sing 
or say anything, and when you feel as if you don't want 
any one to say a word. The Holy Ghost can do more in 
one day than you and I can in five years. I hope He will 
come and work in each of our hearts to-day. 

And this is His dwelling-place, in these bodies that 
you and I inhabit. When we have been near the Son of 
God, then it is that these bodies become temples for the 



THE WORK OF THE. HOLY SPIRIT. 455 

Holy Ghost to dwell in. Jesus says, "He shall be in 
you. He shall abide with you." And Paul says, "Know 
ye not that ye are the temples of God, and that the 
spirit of God dwelleth in you?" We have been bought, 
not by silver, but by the precious Son of God; and these 
bodies are the temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in. 
Therefore, let us keep the temple pure and sweet. I want 
a baptism for my own soul. I don't want to begin this 
year without a fresh anointing for the service. I should 
like to have all of you have the same desireo 



GOD'S SERVICE AND THE UiA.Y SPIRIT. 



This evening I want to continue the subject we had this 
afternoon. There may be some here who were not pres- 
ent this afternoon. Therefore, I will briefly outline the 
points discussed then. We were talking about the office 
work of the Holy Spirit, and I tried to show that His 
office work was to convict of sin, to impart the love of 
God, fill us with hope and courage, to give us liberty to 
testify of Christ, to teach us all things, to guide us into 
all truth and convert us. 

Now, I want to go right on and show that it is His 
work to fill us, and qualify us for God's service. There 
was one denomination in this country a few years ago 
that reported that there had not been a single conversion. 
Now, I believe that every church can be fruit-bearing if 
it will, and I believe that this very subject we have be- 
fore us to-night will show us how we can bring forth 
fruit. I don't believe that any church need return at the 
end of the year and say, ' ' We have toiled all the year 
and gained nothing." I believe that it is clearly taught 
in the Scriptures that it is the privilege of every true 
child of God to bring forth fruit. " Herein is my father 
glorified that ye bring forth much fruit." Now, there are 
a good many sons and daughters of God that are without 
power. I think there is not one here that will deny that. 

456 






Paul at Ephesus. Acts, xix, 17-20. 



god's service and the holy spirit. 459 

I do not think that I slander the church when I say nine- 
tenths of the church members to-day are without power. 
I think if you take one-tenth of them you will have about 
all that have got real Holy Ghost power. Now, I don't 
believe that ought to be the state of the church. I think 
it would be a good idea when a man or woman wants to 
join the church to ask him if he wants to be a member 
with or without power. If he says, " Without power," 
it would be well to say, "We have plenty of that kind 
of church members. What we want is a few with power." 
I believe you can all have it if you will. The power is 
here. This old book teaches us how we can get it. Now, 
I do not know that I am right, but I think you will find 
three classes of Christians represented in the Bible, and 
I think you will find them in all our churches. The first 
is represented in the third chapter of John, where Nico- 
demus came to Christ by night and got life. But he only 
barely got it. He didn't get it in all its abundance. Nico- 
demus worked while Peter, James and John were enjoying. 
They heard all the parables, saw all the miracles, ate with 
Him, slept with Him, and they were just lifted up into the 
third heaven, as you might say, while poor Nicodemus 
was living on sawdust. He didn't get any food for his 
soul. And yet I suppose he reasoned in this way: " I 
am a high member. I am a member of Sanhedrim, and 
if I should identify myself with that despised Nazarene I 
should lose my power and influence." He might have 
become one of the twelve had he taken the stand. We 
have got to stoop if we are going to conquer, and when 
a man is not willing to take a low place to get power 
with God, he is not going to get it. There is a good 
deal of difference between social power, political power, 



460 Moody's sermons. 

and a kind of religious power. But these are not the 
kinds of power that I am talking about. I am talking 
about Holy Ghost power. Strength is one thing, and 
power is another. The giant of Gath had strength, but 
David had power. 

In the fourth chapter of John you will find a higher 
type of Christian. That woman that came to the well 
to get water. She got the whole well. She got so much 
of the living water that you couldn't have kept her in the 
Sanhedrim. She went back into town and told what 
Christ had done for her. She drank deeper than Nico- 
demus did. Isn't a well better than just a little water? 
If I have a drop of water in a tumbler I can truly say I 
have water, but there would not be any bubbling up. 

In the seventh chapter of John, you will find the high- 
est type, and that is the class I want to belong to. If 
we could only just get this whole audience into the 
seventh chapter of John, this city would be turned up- 
side down. On that last day He said, "If any man 
thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, and out of his 
belly shall flow rivers of living water. " A man once said 
he had- a good well but for two things; it would dry up 
in summer and freeze up in winter. Every child of God 
ought to be like rivers. I used to quote it " river " until 
one day an old man asked me where I got the word 
"river." I said I found it in my Bible. He said he 
didn't find it that way in his Bible, that he read " rivers." 
And now I always say "rivers." Why? Rivers shall 
flow through men and women that are filled with the 
Holy Ghost. We have an idea that the apostles belonged 
to another race of beings. Not a bit of it. They got so 
filled with the Spirit of God that rivers actually flowed 



god's service and the holy spirit. 461 

from them. And you needn't go back to those old 
apostles, not even one hundred years, to Wesley and 
Whitfield. Go right back to London. Look at Spurgeon. 
For nearly forty years he preached to the largest congre- 
gation any man has preached to since Christ left this 
earth, and his sermons have been translated into nearly 
every language under the heavens. On every Thursday 
thirty thousand of his sermons were scattered through 
the world. I know that out in the Rocky mountains 
where there are no ministers, men have gathered together 
and read Spurgeon's sermons. I venture to say that 
there are very few ministers in Christendom that haven't 
some of Spurgeon's sermons in their libraries. He had 
a society sent out to evangelize. He had a pastor's col- 
lege where he had men trained who are now preaching 
in every nation in the world. I cannot begin to tell of 
the streams that flowed out from that one man. I don't 
believe that any four walls are going to hold any man's 
influence. It is the privilege of every one of us to be 
filled with the Holy Spirit's power. Now, mark you, it 
is a command to be filled. You know that for years and 
years we got all our water out of the old wells. I re- 
member that in my day I had to pump, pump, pump, 
until that arm was ready to drop out of its socket. And 
I didn't get much water out. Why? Because there 
wasn't much in. Now, you have got to get water before 
you can get it out. Have you ever seen an artesian well? 
I don't see so many of them in the east as I have in the 
west and south, but in a great many places I have found 
them. They don't stop when they come to water, but 
go on drilling, and by-and-by the water comes to the 
top of the ground. But even then they don't stop, but 



462 Moody's sermons. 

go on and on, until they strike a deeper strata, and the 
water comes bubbling up and up. And so I believe it is 
the true position of every child of God to be so filled that 
you haven't got to pump all the time. All you have to 
do is to open the gates and let the stream flow on, and 
on, and on. And it will never give out. All God wants 
us to do is to get filled. 

Now, I want to put this question to the audience. Isn't 
it the time of need, great need? I think one of the most 
lamentable things of this day is that Satan can walk right 
into some of our best Christian homes and families, and 
haul the children down into the deepest and darkest 
depths, and we haven't got the power to reach them and 
bring them back. I don't believe that it is the will of the 
Almighty that the devil should walk into my home and 
drag my children down. If we were filled with the Holy 
Spirit, we could call power down from heaven and save 
the tempted ones. We haven't got the Holy Ghost 
power. May God open your eyes now! Perhaps the 
question comes up, is there any promise that we can lay 
hold on? Listen, "Blessed are they that hunger and 
thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Do 
you know what heaven's measure is? Good measure 
pressed down and running over. I remember when we 
used to sell a man a bushel of oats; we used to take a 
stick and scrape over the top so that he shouldn't get a 
grain over measure. The Lord just shakes it down and 
lets it run over; and when a man is full of the love of 
God, he has power to resist temptation. When the heart 
is filled with the Holy Spirit, and Satan comes to put in 
an evil thought, he throws off the temptation. People 
come to me and say, " Mr. Moody, don't you think you 



god's service and the holy spirit. 463 

ought to preach against this and that?" li No," I say, 
il get the people baptized and it takes them clean out of 
the world." A young man came to me once and said, 
'■' Don't you think I ought to get out of the world now 
that I have become a Christian?" And I said, " No. 
You won't have to leave the world if you just give a good 
ringing testimony for the Son of God. " And when a 
man gets filled with the spirit, he won't always be talk- 
ing about doing this thing and that thing. God wants 
to fill you. But the moment you begin to talk about 
being filled, people say, " If you are full of conceit and 
your own righteousness, full of envy, evil and hate, and 
all those things, how is the Lord going to fill you?" 
Take this tumbler; it is filled with air, and you are won- 
dering how you are going to get the air out. [Here Mr. 
Moody poured water into the tumbler until it ran over.] 
There! Any air there now? " I will pour water upon 
him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground." Is 
it dry here in this city? Let us ask God to open the 
gates and let the flood come in upon us to-night. Come, 
friend, let the heart be opened to-night. Just pull back 
that bolt and let the door be thrown wide open. Say to 
God, " Here am I." And if it is real, honest desire that 
He should come, He will do so and fill you. 

When I was out in Colorado I saw strawberries and 
peas, and here and there a farm where every blade of 
grass was green, and everything was fresh and blooming; 
but just over the fence there would be another farm 
where everything would be dried up. And I said to a 
man on the train, " What does this mean?" He looked 
at me and said, " You are a stranger here. One man 
brings water down from the mountains and waters his 



464 Moody's sermons. 

farm, the other man does not." That explained it. One 
had plenty, and the other didn't have anything. You go 
into some churches and you will find some men that are 
very dry, and a man right next to him with a sunny face, 
and there all is fresh and bright. Why? Because one 
has got the anointing, has got the blessing, and the other 
sits there where the rain is pouring down and doesn't get 
under it at all. Let's get under the pierced clouds, and 
then just keep the heart full. It is no sign you are full 
because you were so two years ago. That is the trouble. 
A good many are trying to work with the anointing they 
got three years ago. They are a lot of Samsons around 
who have lost their hair. How many sermons have you 
heard of which you cannot remember a single word? 
What is the trouble? Why, you were not in the right 
spirit; or, perhaps, the man in the pulpit was not in the 
right spirit, and the sermon didn't lay hold on you. When 
the Spirit of God is in a man the fire just burns. But, 
thank God, although Samson lost his strength it came 
back to him. And some of you Samsons that have lost 
your power can get it back again if you will. God used 
Peter far more after He restored him than He did before 
his fall. I trust there are some here who may become a 
flame of fire. Why not? Don't you want that power? 
You can have it if you will. It is for you. The Lord 
wants to give it to every one. Let's have it. You will 
remember that after Christ rose He met His disciples in 
a little room, and He raised His pierced hands and said, 
" Receive ye the Holy Ghost." And right after that He 
said, "I am now going to leave you, and I want to come 
back here and pray until you have become imbued with 
the power from on high." And one of His disciples an- 



god's service and the holy spirit. 465 

swered, ''Lord, I have the power." And then he said, 
" Ye shall receive the power after the Holy Ghost has 
come upon you." You want to wait for the power. I 
believe that is where the church has gone astray; there 
are hundreds of church members who never think of ask- 
ing God for power. They are children by birth, sons 
and daughters of God, but they are without power. Let 
us seek this power. When the Holy Ghost had come, 
there were more people converted than had been during 
the three years of Christ's ministry. O, I hope the 
Christians here to-night will get power and baptism, and 
then this whole community will feel the power. 

But, again, the power came in the second chapter of 
Acts. I have heard a good many people say, " Why, I 
don't think it right to ask the spirit to come." Didn't 
He come eighteen hundred years ago, and isn't He with 
the church to-day? I honestly believe that the place 
might be shaken as it was in the second chapter of Acts. 
These men were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, peo- 
ple say that you may preach all you like, so long as you 
do not preach in His name. But those preachers could 
not get on without His name; it was their capital in 
trade, all they had. They had just commenced their 
ministry, and they couldn't preach on science and higher 
criticism. They knew nothing about astronomy, geology 
and botany, and I don't know what else that is preached 
about these days. All they knew was that Jesus Christ 
had lived there, they had seen Him die and ascend, and 
the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they went about 
preaching in His name. I tell you a man might preach 
with all the eloquence of Demosthenes, and yet not touch 
the hearts of the people. But let the Holy Ghost come, 



466 Moody's sermons. 

and there would be a mighty stir. Some one says, "A 
lie will get all around the world before the truth gets its 
boots on to contradict it." Now, mark ye. John and 
Peter were rilled in the second chapter, and again in the 
fourth. Now, they had either lost some of their power 
or had greater capacity. If Peter and John needed to 
be filled again so soon after Pentecost, don't you think 
you and I need to be filled again? The house in Jeru- 
salem was shaken twice. Those men were filled again 
and they preached with greater power, and I want to say 
that I haven't any sympathy with the idea that this mir- 
acle could not be repeated again. May God grant that it 
may be repeated. Why shouldn't there be fires here? 
Can you give a reason why? But go on. Ten years after 
there was a meeting down at Cesarea, and I believe that 
was the only meeting that was all planned in heaven. 
Peter was brought from Joppa, thirty miles away, and 
the people sat there and heard what the Lord had to say. 
And Peter stood up and preached. In the eleventh 
chapter of Acts he gives an account of that preaching ten 
years afterward. 

Now, if the Holy Ghost fell twice in Jerusalem, and 
ten years after in Cesarea, why shouldn't it fall to-night? 
Why shouldn't the Holy Ghost come now? I believe, if 
we could only get this cursed unbelief out of here, that 
God would lift the tide-gate, and let the flood come in. 
That is what we want. People say, " What shall I do 
to get this blessing?" Give yourself up fully, wholly and 
unreservedly just now, this minute; make a complete sur- 
render and say, " Here am I, Lord, take me and use me 
for Thyself," and I tell you, if the motive is pure and for 
the glory of God, the blessing will come. But if you are 



god's service and the holy spirit. 467 

selfish about it and want it just for your own sake, you 
are going to be disappointed. A great many mothers are 
mourning because their children are not saved. Do they 
ever mourn because other children are unsaved? Are we 
not selfish? 

If any of you to-night really want this blessing and 
feel down deep in your hearts that you must have it, and 
you are going to lay yourself out for it, I would like to 
pray with you for it. I see some aged men here. Would 
not you like to leave a ray of light behind you? Wouldn't 
you like to see all your children and grandchildren 
gathered into the kingdom before you go? Before you 
go, wouldn't you like to see the kingdom extended right 
here in your midst? There is not a man so old but that 
God can use you. Come! There are none so young 
that God cannot use you. 

You remember that when Elijah was to be taken up, 
he was down at Gilgal with Elisha. And Elijah said 
unto Elisha, " Tarry here, for I go to Bethel;" but Elisha 
said, "As the Lord liveth, I will not leave thee." So the 
two prophets went down to Bethel. When they had 
reached there a young man came up to Elisha and said, 
" Do you know that your master is to be taken away to- 
day?" And Elisha said, "Hold your peace, I know all 
about it." Presently Elijah turned to Elisha, and said, 
"Tarry here, for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho." 
But Elisha replied, " As the Lord liveth, I will not leave 
thee." I have often wished that that wjhole story had 
been put on record. And when they came to Jordan 
there were fifty men there. Elijah took off his mantle 
and smote the waters, and the river divided, and Elijah 
and Elisha passed over on dry ground. And when they 



468 Moody's sermons. 

had gone over Elijah said to Elisha, " Ask what I shall 
do for thee before I be taken away from thee." And 
Elisha asked for a double portion of his spirit. Elijah 
answered, ''Thou hast asked a hard thing, but if you 
see me when I am taken up it shall be so." Do you 
suppose Elisha lost sight of Elijah? O, no! Where 
Elijah went, there Elisha was to be found, but as they 
were journeying along, a whirlwind came up, and they 
were separated. I see Elisha digging the sand out of his 
eyes, and he happened to see something in the air, and 
he looked up, and there was Elijah. And he shouted, 
"My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the 
horsemen thereof!" And he rent his own clothes. Men, 
rend your mantle. You are nothing, get down in the 
dust. And he took up the mantle of Elijah and smote 
the waters and passed over. Now, I am afraid that if 
Elisha had been some of us he would have said, " I am 
the same old Elisha. I expected to feel a sensation. I 
thought I should have a stroke." Man, take God at His 
word. " Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, for they shall be filled." Claim that 
promise. God can raise up witnesses right out of stone 
if he wants to. Elisha got all he went for, because he 
dared to ask. Let us go in for a double portion. Don't 
you want it? What is the use of living at this dying rate 
that we sing and talk about? The Lord has plenty. He 
delights to give. Let us take up the duty of receiving 
just now. Let us pray the Lord God of heaven to fill 
us. Let us pray to have the fruit come. 




Prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Olives. Luke, xxn. 



ELEMENTS OF TRUE PRAYER. 



This afternoon, I want to call your attention to the 
subject of prayer. As this is the week of prayer, we 
want, if possible, to get into the spirit of prayer, and into 
sympathy with those who are praying. If there is to be 
a great, deep, thorough, lasting work, it is going to be in 
answer to prayer. 

I have no sympathy with this idea, that if we ask God 
to do a certain work, He is going to give us chaff. If we 
have faith to claim, I believe He will answer our prayers. 
I don't believe He mocks His children. I believe He will 
give out of His abundance, and give us the very best He 
has. Now, I have no doubt but that a great many of 
you have said at different times, "What is the use of 
prayer anyway?" Sometimes, when I have prayed, it 
has seemed as if the heavens were closed over me. It 
seems as if God does not hear. My words all seem to 
come back to me. Haven't you often felt that way? I 
see some of you giving your assent to that. Now, in an- 
swer to that, let me say, in the first place, Jesus Christ 
is an example for us. We profess to be His disciples. 
Well, remember that as -a man He prayed. As God, 
He answers prayers. The key to Christ's character and 

471 



47 2 MOODY S SERMONS. 

life is this, He was a God-man. At times, He spoke as 
God; at times, as a man. At times, He acted as a man; 
at times, as God. But there is one thing you will find. 
His life, all through His ministry, was filled with prayer, 
and there was no great event in His life that was not 
preceded by prayer. All through His public ministry 
you will find Him often in prayer, and every great event 
of His life, as I said before, was preceded by prayer. I 
was a Christian a good many years before I noticed that 
He was praying at His baptism, but the Bible tells us 
that He came out of the water praying. The spirit came 
in answer to prayer, and the voice that came from heaven 
saying, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased," was a response to prayer. The night pre- 
ceding the most marvelous sermon He preached while 
on earth, you will notice He spent in prayer. There were 
about fifteen thousand sermons in that one. When He 
went up into the mountain and was transfigured, we find 
that He was praying when His visage was changed. He 
had on that heavenly glory, because His Father was to 
visit Him. Then we read in the twelfth chapter of John, 
that He was praying again that God might glorify His 
name, and in Gethsemane, He was praying and sweating 
as it were, great drops of blood when the angel came. The 
angel came not when He was uttering some parable or 
preaching some sermon, but when He was praying. And if 
you and I are going to hear from heaven, it will be when 
we are praying. I have often said that I had rather be able 
to pray like Daniel than preach like Gabriel. What we 
want is men and women that know how to pray, who 
know how to call fire down from heaven. Men, have you 
that power with God in prayer? Now, when I say men, 



ELEMENTS OF TRUE PRAYER. 473 

I mean men and women. Some of you think that you 
cannot do much in this work, and you have said, " I wish 
I were stronger. I wish I was not so confined to my 
household duties." But I want to say that you may ac- 
complish just as much if you cannot come out to any of 
the meetings. It may be that some bedridden saint in 
this city may do more toward bringing down fire than all 
the pastors put together. I went to London in 1872, 
just to spend three or four months, and one night I spoke 
in a prayer-meeting. I went into a Congregational 
church, and I preached with no unusual power. There 
didn't seem to be anything out of the regular line in the 
service. In fact, I was a little disappointed. I didn't 
seem to have much liberty there. That evening, at 
6:30, I preached to men. There seemed to be great 
power. It seemed as if the building was filled with the 
glory of God, and I asked for an expression when I got 
through. They rose by the hundreds. I said, "They 
don't know what this means," so I thought I would put 
another test. I just asked them to step back into the 
chapel, all those that wanted to become Christians, but 
no one else. They flocked into the chapel by the hun- 
dreds. I was in great perplexity; I couldn't understand 
what it meant. I went down to Dublin the next day, 
and on Tuesday morning, I got a dispatch saying, 
" Come to London at once and help us." I didn't know 
what to make of it, but I hastened back to London and 
labored there ten days, and there were four hundred 
names recorded at that time. For months, I could not 
understand what it meant, but by-and-by I found out. 
There was in that church a poor bedridden woman, and 
she used to take different ones upon her heart, and she 



474 MOODY S SERMONS. 

began to pray God to revive the whole church. She 
began to pray God to send me to that church. On Sun- 
day morning her sister came home, and said, " Who do 
you think preached for us this morning?-" She guessed a 
number of ministers that had been in the habit of ex- 
changing with the pastor, and finally gave it up. The 
sister said, "It was Mr. Moody, from America." The 
poor woman turned pale, and said, " I know what that 
means; that is in answer to prayer. There is going to 
be a great work here." The servants brought up her 
dinner, but she said, "No; no dinner for me to-day; I 
spend this day in prayer." And that night while I was 
preaching she was praying, and in answer to her prayers 
the power of God just fell upon the audience. 

My dear friends, I believe that when God's books are 
opened there will be some hidden one that will be much 
nearer the throne than you and I are. 

And now at the beginning of this week, let us pray God 
to give us the spirit of prayer. Let us expect great 
things, and we will not be disappointed if our expecta- 
tions are from God. Let our expectations be from Him, 
not from man. If you look to man you are going to be 
disappointed, but God will never disappoint you. Bring 
your burden here and pray it out before God, and ask 
Him to do great and mighty things. 

Now, I want to call your attention to the elements of 
all true prayer. You know Christ never taught His dis- 
ciples how to preach. When Christ got His theological 
students around Him, He taught them how to pray. And 
I think we often ought to make that prayer, " Lord teach 
us how to pray." I won't have time to go through all of 
them, but I will take them up again. 



. ELEMENTS OF TRUE PRAYER. 475 

First, there is contrition. I am sometimes ashamed of 
myself to think how fluent I am, when I go into the pres- 
ence of God. As if God was on an equal footing with 
me, or rather as if I was on an equal footing with God, 
as if there was no difference between us. Let us bear in 
mind that God is holy. The nearer we get to Him the 
more we will think of His holiness and abhor ourselves. 
We will grow smaller, and He larger. One of the truest 
signs that a man is growing great is that God increases, 
and he decreases. Why, some people will talk about 
themselves by the yard. "I, I, I, I." There will be 
forty-nine I's in a speech five minutes long. That is a 
sign that you are not growing in grace, but are growing 
in conceit. But when we get near to God, how small we 
look, and how great God seems! And you remember 
when Isaiah saw God, he cried, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord 
God of Hosts." And then what did he cry? That he 
was unclean and dwelt with unclean people, and he 
wanted the coal to be taken from off the altar and put 
upon his lips, that his iniquity might be purged away. 
Now, it is one thing to hear God, but when we see Him 
it will be another thing, and let us keep it in mind that 
contrition is the first thing. You remember that when 
Christ taught His disciples to pray, He said, "Our 
Father." 

Then the next thing that follows is the confession of 
our sins. There is no true prayer without confession. 
As long as we have unconfessed sin in our soul we are 
not going to have power with God in prayer. He says 
if we regard iniquity in our hearts He will not hear us, 
much less answer. As long as we are living in any known 
sin, we have no power in prayer. God is not going to hear 



476 Moody's sermons. 

it. It is a prayerless prayer and an abomination to God 
and man. What Gods wants is reality. Now, if there is 
some sin we have hidden in our hearts that we are not will- 
ing to confess, then, of course, we cannot pray. Put the 
question to yourself, can you pray? I don't mean to go 
through a form, but have you power with God in prayer? 
How many times do you hear people get up in prayer- 
mee v ting to pray, but there is no power in it? If a man 
doesn't treat his wife right, he needn't pray. It is all a 
farce, you know. He says the sacrifice of the wicked is 
an abomination to God. If sacrifice is an abomination 
to God, do you tell me that the prayers of a man or wom- 
an who is not living right is not an abomination to God? 
Now, you must bear in mind that there must be true con- 
fession before we are going to have an answer to prayer. 
Not to confess, and then go and do the same thing over 
again, but just turn from the sin. 

My dear friend, if there is anything in your life that is 
wrong, make up your mind that you are not going to let 
the sun go down before you confess it. Let me read you 
a few verses from the thirty-second Psalm. ' ' Blessed is 
he whose transgression is forgiven. " There is no 
confession up to this time. He didn't prosper because 
he would not confess. (First to the fifth verse.) But, 
now notice, " I acknowledge my sin unto Thee, and my 
iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my 
transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the in- 
iquity of my sin." See! Just the moment he confessed, 
the Lord forgave, and then it was that he had power 
with God in prayer. 

Now, the next true element to prayer is restitution. It 
is folly for us to ask God to do something for us that we 



ELEMENTS OF TRUE PRAYER. 477 

can do for ourselves. I don't believe that we preach 
restitution enough. If I have five dollars in my pocket 
that belongs to some one else, and I try to cheat him out 
of it, can I pray? You will find men who are cheating 
their neighbors, and they cannot pray; it won't work at 
all. What we want to-day is a revival of righteousness, 
a revival of uprightness. I sometimes hear a man say, 
" Hallelujah," and it is like a file right across my nerves. 
I look into his face, and know that it is not real. Now, 
" Hallelujah " comes in all right if it proceeds from the 
heart. I don't object to a thing of that kind once in a 
while, just a little of it; but to have a man that is not 
living right, to have, him come and make a great noise 
about religion; it is an abomination to God and man. 
Up in the north of England, a lady came into one of the 
after meetings. She was greatly troubled, and I talked 
with her a number of days, and found out what her 
trouble was. ''I cannot pray. I get down onto my 
knees to pray, but five bottles of wine come up before 
me, and I cannot see the face of the Lord." She told 
that when she was housekeeper for a wealthy gentleman 
in his sickness, she stole five bottles of wine, and -every 
time since then when she got down on her knees to pray, 
up would come the five bottles of wine. " Did you ever 
make restitution? " "No." "Well, you must confess, 
and make restitution to that man before you will be able 
to pray." "Why," she said, "have I got to confess 
that?" "Not only confess, but you must make restitu- 
tion." O, but she couldn't do that, though next day she 
came back, and said, " Now, if I give that money to the 
church, won't that do just as well?" "Why, no; the 
Lord does not want any stolen money. It is not yours to 



478 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

give. There is only one way when you have done wrong 
to make it right, and that is to confess your sins, and, if 
it is in your power, make restitution." Finally she felt 
as if she could not carry the burden any longer, and she 
took the train to the home of this man's son, and told 
him the story of her sin, and handed him the money to 
pay for the wine. He said, " I don't want the money." 
And she said, " Well, [ don't want it." Finally, he said, 
" I will take it and put it into the treasury of the church." 
Before she went away she said she didn't know whether 
she was in the flesh or out of it. She had gotten rid of 
the five bottles of wine. Man, if there is something 
wrong in your life, make restitution. Trade off the old 
lame horse for a good one. Go and make restitution. 
Those kind of things speak louder than any sermons; 
that's the kind of Christianity that we want. Supposing 
it does cost you something. I never saw a man or wom- 
an that was willing to do these things for God that didn't 
receive a blessing. I know this to be true. If some one 
has wronged you, you want them to make it right, don't 
you? There was a man in the south of Ireland who got 
right up and went out of the meeting, went clear up to 
the north of Ireland, and paid man after man hundreds 
of pounds that he had cheated them out of. I believe 
there are a good many men and women who have no 
power at all, because there is something in their lives 
that doesn't please God. 

Now, the next element is forgiveness. I tell you there 
are more people that stumble right there, and lose their 
power than anywhere else. Now, if I do not forgive just 
as I want God to forgive me, then I cannot pray. That is 
the reason why a good many people cannot pray. A man 



ELEMENTS OF TRUE PRAYER. 479 

said to me some time ago, "We have a magnificent 
organ, a wealthy and cultured preacher, but we have not 
had a man converted in our church. Can you tell me 
why?" "Yes, there are half a dozen families in your 
church who are not on speaking terms, and the Holy 
Ghost cannot work. God cannot stultify Himself; He 
says He cannot work. If there is any one you are not will- 
ing to forgive, don't you see that you have broken down 
the bridge, and how are you going to get over yourself? 
Now, if there is any one here who has had trouble with 
some one, and has not forgiven him, he may be excused. 
Get right up and go now, and have it settled before the 
sun goes down. O, that flood-gates may be lifted up so 
that the flood may come in! Perhaps you have had a 
row with your stepmother or father, or your own natural 
mother, perhaps; perhaps you have some falling out with 
your minister; he may be here on the platform; have an 
interview with him before you go out of this hall. Get 
these things settled. Some of you look pretty cross now; 
perhaps I have hit you. That is what I am here for. 
You want to know why your prayers are not answered, 
and I am just trying to tell you. God delights to an- 
swer prayer. But you cannot deceive yourself. If you 
are living a dishonorable life, God hides His face, and 
will not hear you. Are there any bottles of wine in the 
way? Come, that is the question, and may God help 
you to answer it honestly. 



THY WILL, NOT MINE, BE DONE. 



You that were here yesterday afternoon remember that 
I was speaking about the true elements of prayer. I was 
trying to show that there were ten elements to all true 
prayer. The first was contrition, the second confession, 
the third restitution, and the fourth forgiveness; the fifth 
is unity. . You do not know unless you have been in the 
old country, in England, what a wall is built up between 
the church and what they call "dissenters." You men 
who have traveled there know what I am talking about. 
They do not call men ministers unless they belong to the 
Episcopal church. Spurgeon was not looked upon as a 
clergyman because he did not belong to the church of 
England. There was one of those wealthy clergymen, 
who told me himself, that if he saw a dissenting minister 
coming down on the same sidewalk, if it was convenient, 
he would happen on the other side. He had been taught 
that they were enemies of the church of God. Well, he 
went up to a meeting in the north of England where the 
brethren met to pray, and he got such a blessing that he 
came down to his own parish, and the first thing he did 
was to go through the whole parish, and pray with all 
the leading dissenters. I got an invitation to go down to 
this place to preach. I found a tent that would hold as 
many people as there are here, and I found that this 

480 



The Crucifixion. Matthew, xxvii, 45-49. 



THY WILL, NOT MINE, BE DONE. 483 

clergyman and all the dissenting ministers were working 
harmoniously together, and since this had begun there 
had been more conversions than there had been for years. 
This clergyman told me that the man that was nearest 
to him, and whom he loved most in that whole parish, 
was an independent preacher. He found out that that 
dissenting man could be just as godly and good as any 
preachers in his own denomination. I do wish that we 
could get these miserable sectarian walls down. I tell 
you, you get the Christians all united, and Christianity is 
like a great flood. It says that on the day of Pentecost 
there was unity. We are making progress. I thank 
God for that. These walls are tumbling down. Twenty- 
five years ago you could not have had a meeting like this 
here. You could not have had all these ministers up on 
this platform. There would have been condescension 
enough to ruin the whole thing. You might have got 
them on the same platform, but a Baptist would have 
got up and said, "I am a Baptist, and I want you to 
understand that I have condescended to come up here 
and speak." And then up would get an Episcopalian, 
and say that he " had condescended to speak with the 
other brethren." But that has gone by. Since I have 
been here we have been getting all mixed up here, and I 
believe that it is the way it will be in heaven. You won't 
know a Methodist when you get there. All " out-and- 
out Christians, " you know. The nearer we get to the 
Lord, the less we will talk about these differences. We 
have got to climb the ladder. Every true child of God 
ought to pray for unity, brotherly love. It is a beautiful 
sight to see all these ministers here representing the dif- 
ferent churches. 



484 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

Another element to true prayer is thanksgiving. "With 
thanksgiving let your requests be made known." I think 
we would get a hundred times more from the Lord than 
we do if we would only be thankful. There is more said 
in the Bible about praise than prayer. There was a man 
who got up in one of «our meetings and said he had lived 
on Grumble street for a long while, but finally he moved 
on to Thanksgiving street. I do dread these men who 
are always grumbling. 

Spurgeon said he hoped the grass would grow over 
their graves, but if it did it would be the first thing that 
had ever grown near them. We want to be thankful. 
There was a man in our church in Chicago whom I 
never saw when he did not have a smile on his face. He 
was always ready with "Bless the Lord," and it was not a 
hollow sham. It came from the bottom of his soul. One 
day he cut his thumb off, and that very night we had a 
weekly prayer-meeting. He was there with his lame 
hand, and he got up and said, ' ' Bless the Lord. I cut 
my thumb to-day, but I didn't cut it clear off." If it had 
been most of us, it would have been a mournful story. 
Be thankful for what you have. Let us look out that we 
are not one of the class who come to the Lord constantly 
for favors, and never thank Him. 

Then another element is perseverance. Now, I don't 
like to be teased; I suppose you don't. I don't know 
why, but somehow or other the Lord seems to like it. 
He likes to have us press our cause, and what we want is 
to pray on and never faint. There is no gauge to God's 
promises. You may pray for weeks, or months, or years; 
you may go down to your grave, and your prayers may 
not all be answered, but perhaps around your coffin that 



THY WILL, NOT MINE, BE DONE. 485 

wayward boy may be converted. We are instructed to 
pray and never cease. Pray right on. And if we get 
discouraged, we are disobeying God, and are not doing 
what the Lord would like to have us do. I heard in 
England about a wife who said she would give up one 
hour of the day, and go to her room, and pray for her 
husband, who was a skeptic. She prayed for twelve 
months, but no answer came. She said, "Can I give 
him up? No, I will pray six months longer." So she 
went on praying for that time, and at the end of the 
six months not a ray of hope, not a change that she 
could see. And she said again, " Shall I give him up?' 
She came to this conclusion, that she would pray for him 
as long as he lived. That very day when he came home, 
he went upstairs, and when the time came for the dinner 
to be put on the table he did not come down. Finally, 
she went up to the room where she had been praying for 
eighteen months that he might be saved, and she found 
him on his knees praying to God to save him. When I 
was over in England the last time, I found he had built 
a church on his own land. I venture to say that there 
are a good many of you who can remember how you 
prayed for a long time without any answer. I remember, 
during the war, at Nashville, a soldier came to me, 
trembling from head to foot; I thought, perhaps, he had 
been drinking. He took a soiled piece of paper out of 
his pocket, and said, " I wish you would read that." It 
went on to tell that his sister had been praying for him 
ever since he had been in the army. " Sometimes it 
seemed as if my heart would break to think that my 
brother was in the army, and might be shot down any 
time without hope." He said, " I believe I am the worst 



486 Moody's sermons. 

man in the army. I have had the shot and shell whiz 
past me without turning pale, but I got that letter last 
night, and I have not slept a wink since I got it." It 
was all soiled with tears. I talked to him, and had the 
joy of leading him into the light. That sister held right 
on, and the Lord answered her prayer. That is perse- 
verance. It was a hard case, but the Lord answered her 
prayer. So let us keep it in mind, that if we are going 
to have power with God, we have got to persevere. 

Then, another true element to prayer is faith. We 
must believe that our prayers are going to be answered. 
If we have complied with the conditions, then let us look 
for fulfillment. But, mark ye, here is a mistake that peo- 
ple make, and a great mistake, too; they have an idea 
that God does not answer prayer if he doesn't say, ' ' Yes." 
I have three children, and I want them on such terms 
with me that they will ask me for anything they want. 
But I tell you they don't get everything they want. Not 
by a good deal. We want to keep it in mind that when 
we get an answer it may be in the negative. Did you 
ever know the three men that take up the most room in 
Scripture, prayed often? Take Moses; he prayed 
earnestly; he prayed that the Lord would let him go into 
the promised land. For forty years that servant had 
been leading the people through the wilderness, yet the 
Lord would not let him go into the promised land. 
Didn't the Lord love him? He finally said, "Now, 
Moses; don't you speak to Me any more about that 
matter; let it rest." He never mentioned it after that; 
but, I tell you, I don't believe there was a man on the 
earth at that time that God loved as He did Moses. 
Fifteen years after, He answered Moses' prayer. He did 



THY WILL, NOT MINE, BE DONE. 487 

not get his prayers answered just when he wanted them 
answered, but in God's own good time. He wouldn't let 
any archangel, or even Gabriel bury him when he died. 
And do you tell me God didn't love Moses? Take Elijah; 
he knew how to pray. When he got under that juniper 
tree, and prayed that he might die, like a coward, God 
didn't let him die. The only man that didn't pray he 
might die was the very man who did die. Good took him 
to heaven. Now, you take Paul. Thrice Paul prayed 
that the Lord might take the thorn out of his flesh. We 
do not know what the thorn was, and perhaps it is a 
good thing we don't. Lots of people get a good deal of 
comfort out of that. The Lord did not see fit to remove 
the thorn. Anything that would bring Paul up nearer 
God was just the thing he wanted. And so he got his 
prayers answered, but not in the way he wanted. 

Then another true element to prayer is petition. You 
know a good many people pray, and don't make any peti- 
tion. I have heard men pray in this way; telling God 
how great and good, and wonderful He was, and not a 
petition in the prayer from beginning to end. There was 
a man in England who got up in meeting, and made one 
of those wonderful prayers, but there was no petition in 
it. And there was a poor, godly saint who could not 
stand it any longer, and she cried out, "Ask Him for 
something." Now, that is just it. "Ask, and ye shall 
receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." That 
is a promise; now let's lay hold of it. You know there 
are people who will tell you it doesn't do any good to 
pray further than to teach us submission. You can ask, 
and you won't get anything, but it is a healthy exercise. 
That is a nice way to mock a poor heart-broken mother, 



488 Moody's sermons. 

isn't it? It teaches you submission. I am sorry to say, 
I am almost ashamed to say it, but that is the argument 
of a great many skeptics. And a good many ministers 
preach and teach it. " You cannot expect that the 
laws which have been fixed will ever be changed." I 
tell you, I like to go right straight to the fountain-head, 
and see what He says. " Seek, and you shall find." I 
believe He means it. I have asked, haven't you? I 
have been answered, haven't you? What can these 
skeptics and infidels tell you about prayer? They don't 
know anything about it themselves. Supposing there 
came a snowstorm, and a man comes to my house at 
midnight, and knocks at the door. I throw open the 
window, put my head out and say, ' ' What do you want?" 
"There has been a blockade up here, and the people 
have no place to go to." " Well, I am sorry to tell you 
that my laws are fixed. I have made a law that when I 
lock my doors at night, I never open them." Don't you 
call that downright mockery? Now, there are some of 
God's blessings that you get just by asking, and there are 
others you have to seek for. Perhaps there is some- 
thing wrong in your life. God wants to bring that out 
right. God's best gifts are kept under lock and key. I 
tell you if you are going to get them, you have got to 
knock. The promise is, " If you knock, it shall be 
opened unto you. " Keep on knocking. Importunity 
has three names — asking, seeking and knocking. 

The last element is submission. Now if we have 
spread our requests before the Lord, then just say, 
" Thy will be done." Now, that is the last element to 
every true prayer. Keep that in mind. We very often 
set our wills against God's. That will be our ruin, per- 



THY WILL, NOT MINE, BE DONE. 489 

haps. Let the will of God be done. I cannot look a 
day into the future, and I would not dare to take the re- 
sponsibility. It is far better for us to say, "Thy will, 
not mine, be done." That is the last element to true 
prayer. Submission! Submission! One of the sweetest 
lessons that I have learned since I have been in Christ's 
school is just to be submissive, and let Him choose for 
me. I tell Him what I want, but when I get through, I 
like to say, "Now, Lord, you know best, Thy will be 
done." I learned a lesson once from my little girl. She 
was always teasing me for a great big doll. She had a 
lot of dolls around the house without heads, some with- 
out arms, some without legs, but she wanted a great big 
doll. You know if a man has an only daughter he is 
rather soft (and they find it out, you know); so she 
was determined to get that big doll. One day I had a 
good streak come over me, and I took her to a toyshop 
to get her a doll, but as we went in the door we saw a 
basket of little china dolls. "O papa, isn't that the 
cutest little doll you ever saw?" "Yes, yes." " Well, 
won't you buy it?" "Well, now, Emma, let me choose 
this time." " O, no, papa; I just want this little doll." 
I paid a nickel for the doll and took her home. After 
the newness had worn off, the doll was left with all the 
others. I said, " Emma, do you know what I was going 
to do that day when I took you into the toyshop, and 
you selected that little china doll?" "No, papa." 
" Well. I was going to buy you one of those great big 
ones." " You were? Why didn't you do it?" "Because 
you wouldn't let me. You remember you wanted that 
little doll, and you would have it." The little thing saw 
the point, and she bit her lips and did not say anything 



490 MOODY S SERMONS. . ' 

more. From that day to this I cannot get her to say 
what she wants. When I was going to Europe the last 
time, I asked her what she wanted me to bring her, and 
she said, Anything you like." 

It is far better to let God choose for us than to choose 
for ourselves. "Thy will, not mine, be done." 




Hagar in the "Wildirness. Genesis, xlv. 



TRUST IN GOD BRINGS PERFECT PEACE. 



I want to call your attention to one of the promises 
that Jesus Christ left us. I cannot say that it is the 
best, but I think that I can honestly say it is one of the 
best. 

Some years ago a gentleman came to me and asked 
me which I thought was the most precious promise of 
all those that Christ left. I took some time to look over 
the promises that Christ left us, but I gave up the job. 
I found that I could not answer the question. It is like 
a man with a large family of children, he cannot tell 
which he likes best; he loves them all. But this is one 
of the sweetest promises of all. " Thou wilt keep him 
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because 
he trusteth in Thee. " There are a good many people who 
think the promises are not going to be fulfilled. There 
are some that you do see fulfilled, and you cannot help 
but believe they are true. Now, remember that all the 
promises are not given without conditions; some promises 
are given with and others without conditions attached to 
them. For instance, it says, " If I regard iniquity in my 
heart the Lord will not hear me." Now, I need not pray 
as long as I am cherishing some known sin. The Lord says 
in the eighty-fourth Psalm, " No good thing will he with- 
hold from them that walk uprightly. " Then there are prom- 

493 



494 MOODY S SERMONS. 

ises without conditions. He promised Adam and Eve 
that the world should have a Savior, and there was no 
power on earth or perdition that could keep Christ from 
coming at the appointed time. When Christ left the 
world, he said he would send us the Holy Ghost. He 
had only been gone ten days when the Holy Ghost came. 
And so you can run right through the Scriptures, and you 
will find that some of the promises are with and some 
without conditions; and if we don't comply with the 
conditions we cannot expect them to be fulfilled. 

I believe it will be the experience of every man and 
woman on the face of the earth. I believe that every 
one will be obliged to testify in the evening of life that 
if we have complied with the condition the Lord has ful- 
filled his work to the letter. I believe you could cleave 
the ocean easier than break one of God's promises. So 
when we come to a promise like the one we have before 
us to-day I want you to bear in mind that there is no 
discount upon it. You will find it in the closing of the 
eleventh chapter of Matthew. " Come unto Me, all ye 
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest." 

If you probe the human heart you will find in that 
heart a want, and that want is rest. The cry of the 
world to-day is, " Where can rest be found?" Why are 
your theaters and places of amusement crowded at 
night? Because people expect to get rest there. That 
is what people are after — rest. Some think they are 
going to get it in pleasure, others think they are going 
to get it in wealth, and others in literature. They are 
seeking and finding no rest. Now, I don't believe there 
is but one place in this dark world where you can find 



TRUST IN GOD BRINGS PERFECT PEACE. 495 

rest. If I wanted to find a man who had rest, I would 
not go among the very wealthy. The man that we read 
of in the twelfth chapter of Luke thought he was going 
to get rest by multiplying his goods, but he was disap- 
pointed. I will venture to say that there is not a person 
in this wide world that has tried to find rest in that way 
and found it. The man or woman that is looking after 
the last fashion doesn't get rest to his soul. If I wanted 
to find a person who had rest, I would not go among the 
pleasure-seekers. . They have a few hours of enjoyment, 
but the next day there will be enough to upset it all. 
You may have a cup of pleasure to-day, and a cup of 
sorrow to-morrow. That's the way it is with the world. 
Now, I will tell you this. If I wanted to find a man or 
woman that had rest, I would go to some one that has 
heard the voice of Jesus saying, i( Come unto Me, and I 
will give you rest." I will venture to say that if I should 
put it to vote here to-day there are not less than a 
thousand people who would spring to their feet and say 
that they found rest at the foot of the cross. 

Do you know that for four thousand years no prophet 
nor priest nor patriarch ever stood up and uttered a text 
like the one we have before us to-day? I think it would 
be blasphemy for Moses to have uttered a text like this. 
Suppose that great lawgiver had stood up and uttered 
such a text. Do you think he had rest when he was 
teasing the Lord to let him go into the promised land? 
Do you think Elijah could have uttered such a text as 
this? And this is one of the strongest proofs that Jesus 
Christ was not only man, but He was God. He was God- 
man, and this is heaven's proclamation, "Come unto 
Me, and I will give you rest." He brought it down from 



49° MOODY'S SERMONS. 

heaven with Him. I thank God for the word " give " in 
that passage. He doesn't sell it. Some of us are so 
poor that we could not buy it if it was for sale. I ven- 
ture to say that there are thousands of men to-day who 
would give their millions if they could buy rest. Thank 
God, we can get it for nothing. 

Now, if this text was not true, don't you think it would 
have been found out by this time? I believe it as much 
as I believe in my existence. Why? Because I not only 
find it in the book, but in my own experience. I like to 
have a text like this, because it takes us all in. " Come 
unto Me, all." That doesn't mean a select few — you 
refined ladies and cultured men. It doesn't mean you 
good people only. This text applies to saint and sinner. 
If you cannot come a saint, come a sinner. Only come! 
A lady told me once that she was so hard-hearted she 
couldn't come. " Well," I said, "my good woman, it 
doesn't say all ye soft-hearted people, come. Black hearts, 
vile hearts, hard hearts, soft hearts, all hearts, come." 
Who can soften it but Himself? The harder the heart 
the more need you have to come. If you can prove that 
you are a sinner you are entitled to the promise. Get 
all the benefit you can out of it. Now, you know that 
there are a good many people who think this text applies 
to sinners. It is just the thing for them, too. You 
know, I think that this text applies to saints as much as 
it does to sinners, because what do we see to-day? Why, 
the church, Christian people, all loaded down with cares 
and troubles. " Come unto Me, all ye that labor, "all! I 
believe that means that Christian whose heart is burdened 
with some great sorrow. The Lord wants you to come. 

It says in another place, "Casting all your care upon 



TRUST IN GOD BRINGS PERFECT PEACE. 497 

Him, for He careth for you." I tell you what, we would 
have a victorious church if we could get Christian people 
to realize that. Some people go back into the past and 
rake up all the troubles they ever had, and the/ 1 they 
look into the future and anticipate that they will have 
still more trouble, and they go reeling and staggering all 
through life. They give you the cold chills every time 
they meet you; they will put on a whining voice and tell 
you what ' ' a hard time they have had. " The Lord says, 
" Cast all your care on Me; I want to carry your burdens 
and your troubles." There are some of these people 
here to-day. I can tell by their looks. What we want is 
a joyful church, and we are not going to reach the world 
until we have it. We want to get this long-faced Chris- 
tianity off the face of the earth. You take these people 
that have some great burden and let them come into a 
meeting like this, and if you can get their attention upon 
the singing or preaching, they will sa}', "O, wasn't it 
grand? I forgot all my cares." And they just drop their 
bundle. But the moment the benediction is pronounced, 
they grab the bundle again. You laugh, but you will do 
it here to-day. " Cast your care on Him." 

Then sometimes you go into your closet and close your 
door and you get so carried away and lifted up that you 
forget your troubles; but you just take it up again the 
moment you get off your knees. Leave your sorrow here 
to-day, cast all your care upon Him. If you cannot 
come to Christ as a saint, come as a sinner. But if you 
are a saint with some trouble or care, bring it to Him. 
Saint and sinner come ! He wants you all. He doesn't 
want a woman to go out of here to-day carrying a sorrow 
or burden. Don't let Satan believe you cannot come if 



498 Moody's sermons. 

you will. Christ says, "Ye will not come unto Me." 
With the command comes the power. A man in one of 
our meetings in Europe said he would like to come, but 
he was chained and couldn't come. A Scotchman said 
to him, "Ay, man, why don't you come chain and all?" 
He said, " I never thought of that." 

Are you cross and peevish and do you make things un- 
pleasant at home? My friend, come to Christ and ask 
Him to help you. Whatever the sin is, bring it to Him. 
Don't let any one say you can't, for you can. The only 
thing you must do is to bring Him your sin, your burden 
and your cross. That is the only thing that will be 
acceptable. 

There is another passage that I would like to lay along- 
side of this. " Him that cometh unto Me, I will in nowise 
cast out." Come unto Him now. I have no sympathy 
with this idea that a sinner must wait to come. Does 
God say, "I didn't mean you; you are too black and 
vile"? I remember trying to lead a man to Christ in 
Chicago, a good many years ago, and I took him to a 
good many promises, but finally I took him to this one. 
" Do you believe Christ said that?" " I suppose He did." 
" Suppose he did? Do you believe it?" " I hope so." 
"Hope so? Do you believe it?" You do your work, and 
the Lord will do His. Just come as you are, and throw 
yourself upon His bosom, and He will not cast you out. 
This man thought it was too simple and easy. Take 
Him at His word. Finally he said, "I will," and he 
went with me and consecrated himself to the Lord. 
When I shook hands with him I said, "Now, you will 
have a conflict to-morrow; Satan will not let you off. 
When you get up in the morning he will tempt you, but 



TRUST IN GOD BRINGS PERFECT PEACE. 499 

don't listen to him; say, ' If it was true last night, it will 
always be true.' " He said he would not be tempted. But 
the tempter came in an unexpected manner, before I 
thought he would; he came that night. It is a good 
thing to take a promise like this and walk right out upon 
it. Satan comes and says, "Do you feel it?" I don't 
always feel the same when I am away, but there is one 
thing I can believe. I can take one of these promises and 
lay hold of it and believe it; every'one of you can do it. 
Perhaps some of you say, " Mr. Moody, I wish you would 
tell us what it is to come." The best definition I know 
is to come. The more you try to explain it, the more 
you are mystified. About the first thing a mother does is 
to teach her child to look. At noontime she takes the 
child to the window and says, "Look, baby; see papa 
coming." You are taught to come before you remember. 
You don't want any minister to tell you what it is to 
come. We have got something worth more than a 
thousand dollars; and you can have it if you wish. 
Christ is not mocking you; He wants you to come, not 
with any feeling or emotion, only come, that's all. Now, 
will you come? I tell you what I think it means to take 
up the cross. If you are going to get rest you will get it 
at the cross. Do you ask me what that is? I don't 
know. I don't know what your cross may be; it may he 
to go home and tell a godless husband that you have 
made up your mind to serve God. 

I was preaching in Chicago to a hall full of women one 
Sunday afternoon, and after the meeting was over a lady 
came to me and said she wanted to talk to me. She 
said she would accept Christ, and after some conversation 
she went home. I looked for her a whole week, but 



500 Moody's sermons. 

didn't see her until the Sunday afternoon. She came 
and sat down right in front of me, and her face had such 
a sad expression. After the meeting was over, I went to 
her and asked her what the trouble was. She said, 
"O, Mr. Moody, this has been the most miserable week 
of my life." I asked her if there was any one whom she 
had had trouble with and whom she could not forgive. 
She said, "No, not that I know of." "Well, did you 
tell your friends about having found the Saviour?" 
' ' Indeed I didn't; I have been all the week trying to keep 
it from them." "Well," I said, "that is the reason why 
you have no peace." She wanted to take the crown, but 
didn't want the cross. My friends, you have got to go 
by the way of Calvary. If you ever get rest, you must 
get it at the foot of the cross. " Why," she said, " If I 
should go home and tell my infidel husband that I had 
found Christ, I don't know what he would do; I think he 
would turn me out." "Well," I said, "go out." She 
went away promising that she would tell him, but she 
didn't want another wretched week. She was bound to 
have peace. The next night I gave a lecture to men 
only, and in the hall there were eight thousand men and 
one solitary woman. When I got through and went into 
the inquiry-meeting I found this lady with her husband. 
She introduced him to me, and said, " He wants to be- 
come a Christian." I took my Bible and told him all 
about Christ, and he accepted Him. 1 said to her after 
it was all over, " It turned out quite different from what 
you expected, didn't it?" She said, "Yes, I was never 
so scared in my life. I expected he would do something 
dreadful, but it has turned out so well." She took God's 
way and got rest. You may have rest. Don't you 



TRUST IN GOD BRINGS PERFECT PEACE. 501 

believe it, ministers ? You have seen it over and over 
again. 

I want to say to you young ladies, perhaps you have a 
godless father or mother, a skeptical brother, who is 
going down through drink, and perhaps there is no one 
who can reach them but you. How many times a 
godly, pure young lady has taken the light into some 
darkened home! I remember the last time Mr. Sankey 
and myself were in Edinburgh there was a father, two 
sisters and a brother, who used every morning to take 
the morning paper and pick my sermon all to pieces. 
They were indignant to think that the Edinburgh people 
should be carried away with such preaching. But one 
day one of the sisters was going by the hall and she 
thought she would drop in and see what class of people 
went there. She happened to take a seat by a godly 
lady, who said to her, "I hope you are interested in this 
work." She tossed her head and said, "Indeed I am 
not. I am disgusted with everything I have seen and 
heard." "Well," said the lady, "perhaps you came 
prejudiced." "Yes, and the meeting has not removed 
any of it, but has rather increased it." " I have received 
a great deal of good from them." "There is nothing 
here for me. I don't see how any intellectual person can 
be interested." To make a long story short, she got the 
lady to promise to come back. When the meeting broke 
up, just a little of the prejudice had worn away. She 
promised to come back the next day. She went so far 
as to tell that skeptical father, brother and sister, but 
they just laughed. You have got to take the cross if 
you get rest. But one day the two sisters were together, 
and the other said, "Now, what have you got at those 



502 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

meetings that you didn't have in the first place?" "1 
have a peace that I never knew of before, I am at peace 
with God, myself and all the world." Did you ever 
have a little war of your own with your neighbors, in 
your own family? And she said, "I have self-control. 
You know, sister, if you had said half the mean things 
before I was converted that you have since I would have 
been angry, and answered back, but if you remember 
correctly, I haven't answered once since I have been con- 
verted; you can get this same rest and peace." Like 
Martha and Mary, they had a brother Lazarus, but he 
was a member of the University of Edinburgh. He to 
be converted? He go to these meetings? It might do 
for women, but not for him. One night they came home 
and told him that a chum of his own, a member of the 
university, had got up and confessed Christ, and when he 
sat down his brother got up and confessed; and so with 
the third one. When the young man heard it, he said, 
"Do you mean to tell me that he has been converted?" 
"Yes." " Well," he said, " there must be something in 
it." He put on his hat and coat and went to see his 
friend Black. Black got him down to the meeting, and 
he was converted. 

We went through to Glasgow, and hadn't been there 
six weeks when news came that that young man had 
been stricken down and died. When he was dying he 
called his father to his bedside and said, " Wasn't it a 
good thing that my sisters went to those meetings?" 

"Yes, yes, my son, I am so glad you are a Christian; 
that is the only comfort that I have now in the thought 
of losing you. I will become a Christian, and will meet 
you again." I tell this to encourage some sister to go 



TRUST IN GOD BRINGS PERFECT PEACE. 503 

home and carry the message of salvation. It may be 
that your brother may be taken away in a few months. 
My dear friends, are we not living in solemn days? Isn't 
it time for us to get our friends into the kingdom of God? 
Come, wife, won't you go home and tell your husband? 
Come, sister, won't you go home and tell your brothers? 
Won't you take up your cross this afternoon? The 
blessing of God will rest on your soul if you will. 

I was in Wales once, and a lady told me this little 
story : An English friend of hers, a mother, had a child 
that was sick. At first they considered there was no 
danger, until one day the doctor came in and said that 
the symptoms were very unfavorable. He took the 
mother out of the room and told her that the child could 
not. live. It came like a thunderbolt. After the doctor 
had gone, the mother went into the room where the child 
lay and began to talk to the child and tried to divert its 
mind. "Darling, do you know you will soon hear the 
music of heaven? You will hear a sweeter song than 
you have ever heard on earth; you will hear them sing 
the song of Moses and the lamb. You are very fond of 
music. Won't it be sweet, darling?" And the little 
tired, sick child turned its head away, and said, " O, 
mamma, I am so tired and so sick that I think it would 
make me worse to hear all that music." "Well," the 
mother said, "you will soon see Jesus; you will see the 
seraphim and cherubim and the streets all paved with 
gold," and she went on picturing heaven as it is described 
in Revelations, and the little tired child again turned its 
head away and said, " O, mamma. I am so tired that I 
think it would make me worse to see all those beautiful 
things." And the mother took the little child up in her 



504 MOODY S SERMONS. 

arms and pressed her to her loving heart. And the little 
sick child whispered, " O, mamma, that is what I want. 
If Jesus will only take me in his arms and let me rest." 

Dear friend, are you not tired and weary of sin? Are 
you not weary of the turmoil of life? You can find rest 
on the bosom of the Son of God. You can find it right 
here if you will. May God help you to leave ycur sins 
and burdens and cares in this hall. 

Now, shan't we pray? Let us all lift our hearts to God 
in prayer. Perhaps it will never happen again that so 
many will pray for you as to-day. What an afternoon 
this might be! Let us bow our heads in prayer. 




Ezekiel Prophesying. Ezekiel, ii, 3 



WATCH, FIGHT AND PRAY. 



A* fou are all aware, this is the first day of the week 
of prayer, and probably there will be more prayer offered 
in the next week than there has been in the last twelve 
months. We want to fall into line. If we are to have 
a real deep, thorough work in this community, it is going 
to be in answer to prayer. 

Let us learn a lessson from Nehemiah. He humbled 
himself and confessed his sins, and then it was that God 
heard his prayer, and gave him a great, yes, a great 
blessing, not only to his own soul, but to thousands of 
others, and I believe it will be the same right here. The 
walls are torn down in a great many places. We want 
them built up, don't we? Then let there be an honest 
cry. Let's make a sacrifice; let's be here Monday, Tues- 
day and Wednesday, at the noonday hour. If you busi- 
ness men have to leave your business, and you wives, 
your household cares, make up your minds that you are 
going to be here. Let there be a real cry going up to 
God, and we shall not be disappointed. 

I want to say that we can learn a lesson from this dis- 
tinguished man, whose prayer we have read this morning. 
Nehemiah was not a Jewish prince, although it is sup- 
posed he had royal blood in his veins. He was born in 
captivity. It was about one hundred years after Jeru- 

507 



508 Moody's sermons. 

salem was taken that this man appeared upon the hori- 
zon. He was in the court of Artaxerxes. He was a 
cupbearer to the king, and held a high position. I can 
imagine that one day in the court he met a man that had 
come down from Jerusalem, perhaps, on business for the 
king, and he got into conversation with him. In fact, it 
may be this very man wanted Nehemiah to use his in- 
fluence with the king. Nehemiah began to inquire about 
Jerusalem, and the condition of his own people, and he 
was told they were in great want and distress and deg- 
radation, and that the walls of the city were still down, 
that the gates had been burned and never restored, and 
his patriotic heart began to burn. He began to mourn 
for his own country, to pray and fast, and I have no 
doubt but that when he commenced to pray he asked 
that the king might be sent to rebuild the walls. He, 
perhaps, didn't have any thought of doing anything more 
than to pray. But if you can get a man to pray, he will 
soon be prepared to do something more. Nehemiah 
didn't pray for one week, nor two, nor even a month, but 
he kept at it. Perhaps he fasted two or three days in a 
week, and he kept that up all through the fall. He perse- 
vered. He prayed on and fasted, and all this while God 
was answering his prayer. Although he didn't see any 
answer, God was just preparing that king to have every- 
thing in readiness when the time should come. And one 
day he stands before the king as usual, and gives him a cup 
of wine. The king looked up, and said, "Nehemiah, 
why art thou sad? Are you sick?" Nehemiah answered, 
11 No." " Well, what is the trouble? It must be sorrow 
of heart." Then Nehemiah told the king how he was 
burdened for his own country, and the king said, ' ( Well, 



WATCH, FIGHT AND PRAY. 509 

what is your request?" But Nehemiah had time to pray 
right then and there. The king didn't hear the prayer, 
but the King of kings heard it. " Lord, help me now," 
he prayed to the God of heaven. Men say they have 
not time to pray, but Nehemiah prayed while the king 
was- waiting for an answer. The Lord taught him just 
what to ask for, and then he made his request. It wasn't 
that the king of Persia might go and rebuild those walls, 
but that he himself might be sent to do the work. There 
is faith for you! He was dead in earnest. For three or 
four months he had concentrated his mind upon the 
misery and wretchedness of his country. 

To give up that Persian court and identify himself with 
those despised Jews! He was there among the highest of 
all the whole realm; he was cupbearer to the king, and 
held a high position. And not only that; he was a man 
of great wealth, lived in great luxury, and a man of great 
influence in that court; and for him to go up to Jeru- 
salem and lose caste, it was like Moses turning his back 
upon the court and identifying himself with those poor 
captives. He stooped to conquer, and when you get 
ready to stoop, God will use you. If we are going to 
succeed in God's work, we must stoop. 

Nehemiah found favor with the king. The king was all 
ready to give him his request, and he gave orders that 
Nehemiah should have a retinue of soldiers to escort him 
through the different provinces. Jerusalem was one thou- 
sand miles away. He knew how he would be persecuted 
and looked down upon, but he had made up his mind to 
rebuild those walls. I tell you it is a great thing for a 
man to set something before him, and go and do it. 
" This one thing I do," says Nehemiah; " I will rebuild 



510 modoy's sermons. 

those walls," and he went. When he reached Jerusalem 
he didn't have some one go before him and blow a horn, 
and say, ' ' This is the great Nehemiah, the cupbearer to 
the great king of Persia." He didn't tell any one what 
his business was. Man, let the work speak for itself. 
You needn't blow any horns; go and do the work, and it 
will advertise itself. I am tired of these men who are 
always going to do some great thing. 

This man goes into Jerusalem, and doesn't tell what he 
has come for. There is quite a stir. What has he come 
for? Is it war, or is it peace? What has brought him 
here? What does it all mean? But Nehemiah stayed 
there three days and three nights, and didn't let even his 
own men know what he had come for. One night, after 
they had all gone to bed, and all was quiet, he stole out 
on his beast, and tried to ride around on the walls, but 
he couldn't get round on his beast, so he footed it. He 
walked all around those walls examining them, and found 
them all in ruins. His heart must have sunk within him 
if he hadn't a brave one. The nations all around were 
looking down upon these weak, feeble Jews. So it is to- 
day; the walls are down, and people say it is no use, and 
their hands drop down by their side. After he had been 
there three days and nights, he called the chief priests 
and elders and the Pharisees together, and told them 
what his errand was. All this while God had been work- 
ing in the hearts of his men so that they were now ready. 
When he had got through with his speech they arose, 
and said, "Let us rebuild the city." If we could have 
such men here, wouldn't we see the walls of Jerusalem 
going up? 

But it wasn't long before there was a muttering out- 



WATCH, FIGHT AND PRAY. 5 I I 

side; you could hear the rumbling. I want to tell you, 
my friends, that there was never any work done for God 
without opposition. A great many people are afraid of 
opposition. That is just what we want. If it is real 
work there is going to be opposition. Sanballat and 
Tobiah, the Ammonite, the Geshemites, and all the peo- 
ple round heard of it, and they began in the first to 
ridicule. It will be so right here. People will begin to 
ridicule and heap all manner of criticism upon the work. 
So these men went on ridiculing and jeering at Nehemiah, 
but he was too busy to stop and listen to them. I pity 
these men that will stop to answer all this caviling. Let 
them go on grumbling and caviling. Nehemiah kept 
steady at work. Well, they found that ridicule didn't 
work, so they sent him a letter. " "Let's go down to the 
plains of Ono and have a council." They wanted to get 
him down to the plains to consult with him and have a 
friendly conversation. What is the church of God doing 
now but having discussions upon the plains of Ono? Look 
at the whole Presbyterian church, turned aside discussing 
higher criticism! Nehemiah just sent back word, " I am 
doing a great work, and I cannot come down." He 
thought it was "coming down." I think so too. Let the 
discussions go. Man, we have all eternity to discuss 
these questions. There is too much work to be done 
now to stop to discuss them. Well, they wrote him an- 
other letter. "Come down to the plains of Ono; we 
want to have a friendly discussion; we are your friends." 
By this time the Arabs came along; those roaming Ish- 
maelites were going to fight him. But Nehemiah and 
his men just put on their swords. They were dead in 
earnest. " Watch, fight, pray." They watched. O, 



5i2 Moody's sermons. 

it is a wily devil that we have to contend with. Do yon 
know it? If he can only get the church to stop to dis- 
cuss these questions, he has accomplished his desire. 

Now, perhaps you women who belong to the Women's 
Christian Temperance union may feel hurt, butl do think 
it is a masterstroke of the devil when he gets you to stop 
to discuss women's rights. " Haste to the rescue! We 
are doing a great work, and haven't time to come down." 
I tell you the prohibition I believe in is to get the people 
so they won't want to go into the rumshops. That is the 
quickest way to do it; cut the business off, and away it 
goes! Why, there is one town in Scotland where Mr. 
Sankey and myself went; there was a great work of God 
going on, and the people were all converted. There were 
two rumshops there, and they couldn't sell any whisky, 
and had to move away. Now, why can't that be done 
here? If those men on the plains of Ono had gone on 
discussing, there would have been nothing done. But 
Nehemiah kept steady at work. No eight hours a day, 
either. They commenced at starlight in the morning 
and worked until starlight. 

I tell you the man that is counting the hours he works 
for the Lord doesn't amount to much. Build up. Build 
up again. They couldn't get Nehemiah down to the 
plains, so they sent him a fifth letter, what we to-day call 
an open letter. "We understand it is reported that you 
are going to get up a kingdom against the king of Persia. 
This is treason, rebellion, and if it should reach the ears 
of the king you would be put to death. So come down 
and let's have a friendly counsel." But Nehemiah said, 
"I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down." 
That was all he had to say. And when they found they 



WATCH, FIGHT AND PRAY. 5 13 

couldn't get him to come down, and the walls were about 
finished, they went to work and bought one of the 
prophets. I tell you I had rather have ten thousand 
enemies outside than one inside. When the devil gets 
possession of a child of God, he will do the work better 
than the devil himself. ''Now, Nehemiah, there is a 
plan to kill you; come into the temple. Let's go in and 
stay for the night." And he came very near tumbling 
into that pit. He said, "Should such a man as I go 
there to save my life? I cannot do it." He couldn't 
come down, you see, and when he refused, it was revealed 
to him that the devil was in the man. My friends, look 
out. If even a minister asks you to do something against 
that word, don't you do it. Never mind these outside or 
inside enemies, but keep your face set on the walls of 
Jerusalem. 

At last the walls were all finished, all built. Those 
men were terribly in earnest. They didn't take their 
clothes off. They just ate, drank and slept. They went 
in to build the walls of Jerusalem, and I tell you what, 
they will be rebuilt here if we can only get a few hundred 
people in earnest. Never mind what those enemies may 
say. He has a work for us to do, -and if we don't do it, 
it will not be done. It is a false idea some people have 
that if we don't do it somebody else will. I tell you 
what, it won't take long to rebuild the walls here when 
the city moves as Nehemiah and his men moved. Fifty- 
two days, and the building was finished. And there was 
great indignation. And then he went to work and put 
the city in order. I tell you what, I wish we had Nehe- 
miah for mayor in this city. He just made those men 
sign a covenant, and there were five things in that cove- 
nant that he made them sign. 



5 H MOODY'S SERMONS. 

First, they were not to give their daughters to the 
heathen. I haven't time to work this up, but do you know 
how much misery there is and has been in our land be- 
cause pure, Christian young women have been married 
to non-Christian men? God says, "Be not unequally 
yoked with unbelievers. " 

The next thing they were to do (and bear in mind this 
was a thing they had to sign), they were not to buy or 
sell on the Sabbath. They were to keep the law of God; 
they were to keep the Sabbath. Not sell the Sunday 
paper? Not buy a Sunday paper? No, certainly not. 
There was to be no traffic on the Sabbath. I tell you, if 
Nehemiah was here he would find a good many of us like 
Tobiah. Here we have boys who are kept away from the 
Sunday-school to sell papers on the streets; trains run- 
ning clear from Washington in order that the papers can 
be sold. A young man that reads one of those papers 
you cannot get into church. He is all taken up with the 
things of the world. We need a Nehemiah to strengthen 
us out. He would not buy on the Sabbath, and he had 
the gates closed. 

Then the third thing he made them sign was that they 
would let the land rest. For four hundred and ninety 
years they did not keep that agreement, and God took 
them down into Babylon, and kept them there for seventy 
years. They would not let the land rest, and so God 
took it from them. A man says that he will not give 
God one day out of seven. What is the result? Why, 
God takes it. A man is not going to make anything by 
working seven days in a week. You cannot rob God; 
So they signed the covenant that they would let the land 
rest. You know that with the Jews everything revolved 



WATCH, FIGHT AND PRAY. 5 1 5 

around seven. There was a seventh day for rest, and 
seven times seven brought the year of jubilee. 

The next thing in that covenant was that they should 
not take usury from their brother. I tell you, Nehemiah 
would have a time of it in this city, wouldn't he? Yes, he 
would! But Nehemiah made those men sign it. 

The fifth thing was that they would just bring one- 
tenth of all that they had into the Lord's storehouse. 
The first of their fruits were to be brought to the Lord, 
and for thirty-six years they had prosperity. 

I tell you if you take these five things, and carry them 
out, you will have prosperity. Let us all do it personally. 
If it was good for those men, it is good for us. The mo- 
ment we begin to rob God, then darkness and misery and 
wretchedness will come. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 



My subject to-day will take in three classes of people, 
and I think that will cover my audience. First, to -those 
who are Christians, then to those who have backslidden, 
and to those who are not Christians. We all come 
under one of these three heads. 

I think that at just this stage of the meetings a great 
deal depends upon the attitude that Christian people take 
towards these services. You can throw your influence 
for or against. You will have opportunities to show on 
which side you are. The meetings have got to just that 
stage where there is a great deal said for and against. 
One great advantage of these meetings is that it sets 
people talking, and it gives you all a chance to be 
preachers. That is one object of a great union move- 
ment like this. It arouses public opinion. As I said 
before, a great deal depends upon the attitude you take. 
There is a passage over here in Philippians that I would 
like to read, chap, hi., v. 18. Now Paul had reference 
there to those who professed to be friends to Jesus 
Christ. They walk so that they were enemies. Their 
influence was on the wrong side, and you all will have 
an opportunity in the next few days to show your colors. 
You can take your choice. You can throw your influ- 
ence against the work and let your whole family be with- 

5 i6 




The Good Samaritan. Luke, x, 29-37. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 5 1 9 

out a drop of dew, or you can take the right way and let 
the blessing come into your whole house. I was preach- 
ing in the north of England some years ago, and there 
was a Quaker lady who had never been in any service 
outside of the Quaker meeting-house. She had lost a 
child and was very lonely, and one day she thought she 
would drop into one of the public lectures. That day it 
happened to be upon " Heaven " and it was balm to her 
soul. She went home and told her husband and insisted 
upon his bringing her out in the evening. She had a 
nephew and a brother staying with her, and they all four 
came to the meeting that night. It happened to be in a 
Free Methodist church, and if you know anything about 
the Free Methodists you know they are about the noisiest 
crowd there is. It was a strange place for Quakers to 
be. That night I was talking about conversion, and 
while she was taken up with the sermon, the men were 
carried away by the noise and confusion. On the way 
home the brother and nephew were right behind her, 
and she heard them making all manner of sport of the 
meeting. When they reached home, she went upstairs to 
take off her things, before going down to supper. The 
thought occurred to her that the salvation of those two 
men might depend upon her attitude when she went to 
the supper table. She came down, and the moment 
they sat down they began to make all manner of sport of 
the meeting. "Well," she said, "of course we are 
Quakers or Friends. We are not used to that sort of 
thing. It is new to us, but it may be these people get a 
great deal of good from them. One thing is certain; I 
got a great deal of good myself, and if there is anything 
-Ike conversion, I have been converted." She began to 



520 MOODY S SERMONS. 

talk of Christ. The brother and nephew had tickets for 
the theater the next night, but she persuaded them to go 
to the meeting. That brother was going down through 
the influence of strong drink, and was converted. The 
nephew belonged to one of the old families, and he had 
come there to learn a trade. He expected to take charge 
of a large business. He had a great deal of influence 
with the workingmen of a large industry there, and he 
was converted. One day he came with a roll of names 
that would go clear across this hall, asking me to speak 
to the workingmen of the place. That great work of 
1873 was the result of that meeting. They packed the 
church with workingmen, and the fire of God broke out 
among them and swept on for two years. This was the 
result of that woman's taking the attitude she did. Now, 
there are a good many whole families that are perhaps 
scoffers, and in your own immediate circle you will see 
men going about and saying, ''Look out what you say 
and don't throw your influence on the wrong side." You 
know it is very easy to talk about revivals, but do you 
know that there is not a denomination that hasn't sprung 
out of revivals. The Episcopal church claims to be. 
They come from Pentecost, don't they? I would like to 
know where your Methodists come from if they don't 
come from the revival under Wesley. And so you can 
go right on through all the denominations. I venture to 
say there is many a church where four-fifths of the mem- 
bers were converted during revivals. I would like to 
know how many in this audience have been converted 
during revivals, when there has been some revival in 
your church? [Mr. Moody here asked the people present 
who had been converted during revival services to stand. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 52 1 

There was a hearty response.] See! Look at the num- 
ber that has risen right here. You can go into your own 
church and put the question just that way, and you will 
find that the most active and leading class have been 
converted during revivals. There was one place where 
I went to hold meetings, and a young minister took a 
very active part in the work. One day one of his mem- 
bers came to him and said, "If you are going to hold 
your position in the church, you have got to be very cau- 
tious about the stand you take." He went to the church 
roll and took off the names of those who had been con- 
verted during revivals, and he found that four-fifths of 
them had been brought to Christ during such times. I 
want to say that the heartiest and strongest Christians 
come out of revivals and great awakenings, and that is 
what we want here. You want a revival in business in 
your bonds and stocks. You would like to see them go 
up twenty-five or fifty per cent., but I tell you we need a 
breath of revival in Christianity. May God show it to 
us! I believe that is what we will get if we are dead in 
earnest. 

There was one place where we went to hold meetings, 
and it was given out in the papers that we were going to 
stay thirty days. Now, there was a lady who was a 
member of one of the churches, and she said, " I don't 
want my boy brought under the influence of those meet- 
ings. I am afraid that he will be brought into the Y. 
M. C. A., and they will have him on the streets selling 
tracts, and it would be very mortifying to me to have my 
son doing such a thing as that." She was ambitious for 
her boy. She wanted to get him into the bon-ton 
society, as we call it. So she planned to take her only 



522 Moody's sermons. 

boy out of the city to be gone for those thirty days. She 
told her pastor why she had taken him. I knew nothing 
about it. The meetings went on, and just at my right 
hand sat that minister, from the beginning to the end, 
until the last meeting, when he was absent. Just as the 
benediction was pronounced, and the people were crowd- 
ing out, he came rushing in and said he was so sorry he 
had not been there. " I have just been called on one of 
the saddest errands of my life." He told me that that 
woman who had taken her son away from the influence 
of those meetings had brought him back that day in his 
coffin, and he had just come from the funeral. That 
mother to her dying day never forgave herself. 

My dear friends, be very careful how you walk just 
now. We have been praying God to revive His work, 
and if it is His work, you cannot afford to join with 
the scoffing, jeering people, and talk against the work of 
God. 

I remember some years ago seeing a little notice in the 
paper, and it made a great impression upon my mind at 
the time. It was about a father taking his little child 
into the field one day. He lay down under the shade of 
a tree and fell asleep. Before he went to sleep the child 
was picking wild flowers and grass and saying, "pretty, 
pretty. " When he fell asleep the child wandered around 
and away from him, and when he woke up his first 
thought was, ' ' Where is my child?" He shouted at the 
top of his voice, and running to a hill at some distance 
he called, but there was no response. Finally he went 
to the edge of a precipice, and looking down, he saw the 
mangled form of his little child. "He took it up and 
accused himself of being its murderer. While he. slum- 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 523 

bered the child had wandered away and been lost. I 
have often thought that was a picture of God's own dear 
children going over a worse precipice than that into 
drunkards' and gamblers' dens, and they are lost before 
you know it. I firmly believe it is much easier to keep 
the cars on the track than to get them back after they 
have once been thrown off. Therefore, I would like to 
say to you that there is something more important than 
just keeping up the bonds and stocks for your children. 
Supposing you don't leave them so many thousands of 
dollars. Isn't it better to leave them a good Christian 
character? Isn't it a good deal better for you to let 
business suffer for the next thirty days and just lay your- 
self out to get your whole family blessed and into the 
kingdom of God? I believe we will see signs and wonders 
here if we just stir ourselves. Now, the question comes 
up, " Mr. Moody, why is it so many good people's chil- 
dren turn out so bad?" The more I travel and go among 
men, the more I begin to see why. There was a lady 
who brought her son clear from the Pacific coast to the 
east that I might talk to him, because I had influence 
with him when he was a little boy. But it did no good. 
He went down. Afterward I heard that the next son 
had gone the same way, and then the third, and I 
couldn't understand it. The next time I went out to the 
Pacific coast, I was invited to this same home, and one 
night the father took me into a private room. He wrung 
his hands and said, ''I haven't got a son that I'm not 
ashamed of." He was deacon of the church, he attended 
all the services regularly, and outwardly his life was all 
that it should be. He was known as one of the best of 
husbands and fathers, but 1 tell you what, I stayed in 



524 MOODY S SERMONS. 

that home for a week and watched things, and when that 
father put the question to me, " Why is it that my sons 
have turned out so bad?" I said, "Look here, where do 
you spend Monday night?" "I belong to the common 
council, and I have to give Monday night to this," " I 
see, you give that evening to the public; where do you 
spend Tuesday night?" He belonged to the Young 
People's society, and he felt as if he ought to go to their 
meetings on Tuesday. " Where do you go Wednesday?'' 
He didn't want to tell. Finally he said he was one of 
those masons. One of those high masons, you know! 
Master mason, isn't it? Now, don't tell or it will show 
that you are one of them. Well, he was there every 
Wednesday night. "Where are you Thursday night?" 
" On Thursday night I am at home. " " Well, you are a 
public man, and you are out or have company. Where 
are you Friday night?" " O, Friday night I always go 
to the church prayer-meeting." "Saturday night?' 
"Saturday night I am always at home." "Yes, I 
noticed you were last Saturday. You came in and had 
supper, and your boys saw you for a few minutes and 
then you went off to your room to study your Sunday- 
school lesson. Very well, Sunday night where are you?" 
" O, I don't believe in- giving up the second service, and 
I always go to church." " Now, don't you see the devil 
has the advantage over you, and has ruined your three 
boys? It is drive all the day, and your boys slip 
off because they want to go and play with the 
other boys before they go to school. You never come 
home to lunch in the middle of the day. You come 
home late at night and eat your dinner, and you see 
your boys for only a few moments every night. Now, 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 525 

doesn't the fault lie at your own door?" "Well," he 
said, " I never thought of that." " Well, don't you think 
you ought to think of it?" Isn't that one of the great 
evils in America? I needn't be so anxious about some 
one's else wickedness if I am cherishing my own. That 
comes before any public or private office. I heard of a 
traveler once, whose child came in and said, "Mamma, 
that man that comes in Sundays has been scolding me." 
He called his own father " that man." 

And then we wonder how it is that our children turn 
out bad. You men go to church and pray like a saint, 
but I tell you if you don't live like a saint at home, your 
children will curse at home. You cannot shake it off on 
to your wife and expect her to do all the training. God 
holds man responsible. I believe whenever you see a 
Christian man's children turn out wrong, a good deal of 
the fault lies at his own door. Let us see if we cannot 
straighten things out. Give a little time to your boys. 
Unbend and be a boy once in a while. Take them out 
riding, hunting, fishing. Give them a little time; you 
can afford it. This idea that we have got to give all our 
time to the service of the public is wrong, and is bringing 
a good many families down with sorrow. Now, to those 
who have backslidden. 

I met two or three in the inquiry-room last night who 
thought they had never been converted because they had 
backslidden. Now, I am talking to those who have really 
been born of the Spirit, born from above, and wandered 
back into the old life. I want to say that the most ten- 
der, affectionate words in this Bible have been said to 
backsliders. I believe the most wretched man or woman 
on the face of the earth is a man or woman that has 



526 Moody's sermons. 

tasted these gifts and then gone back to the beggarly ele- 
ments of the world. If you have ever known Jesus, this 
old world will never satisfy you. The fact is, when God 
made your heart He made it a little too big for this 
world. If you have had a taste of the world to come, 
this old world will never satisfy you. The Lord wants 
you to come back. I want to say here to-day, that there 
is not a wanderer from God that He doesn't want to have 
come back. You will notice that in the second chapter 
of Jeremiah, fifth verse, the Lord makes it a personal 
question. 

Now, there is one thing about a backslider; he is 
always finding fault with church members. If a man 
goes wrong, he thinks the minister, the church, and all 
the members are wrong. Why? Because he looks 
through wrong eyes. Everything is just painted in that 
way to him. Now, the Lord comes and says, "What 
iniquity have you found in Me?-" I want to say to every 
backslider, that God is the same that He ever was. He 
loves you just as much. He hates your backsliding, but 
still He loves you. You can find lots of iniquity in 
church members, but I tell you it is mighty poor business 
to live on the failings of other people. You will find you 
have as many yourself as you can take care of. Jeremiah, 
ii, 13: " For my people have committed two evils: they 
have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and 
hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold 
no water." Now, notice that they left Him. That is the 
charge that God brings against them. You have left 
Him, not He has left you. 

Some think God has left them. Never! You have left 
Him. Do you want to know how to get back? Just take 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 527 

up the work where you left off. What did you do when 
you first came to the Lord? Repented of your sins and 
turned to God. Just do as you did at first. Turn back 
to God, and if you do, He will have mercy upon you and 
forgive you. Just let your mind go back to those days. 
Didn't you have more peace and pleasure and joy than 
you have now? You are without hope in God and what 
darkness and blackness seems to cover you! Jeremiah, ii, 
19; "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy 
backslidings shall reprove thee. Know, therefore, and 
see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast for- 
saken the Lord thy God, and that My fear is not in thee, 
saith the Lord God of hosts." 

Now, I want to say here to-day that I believe every 
line, every letter of that verse. 

Now, I want to call your attention to a fact. I will 
challenge you to find a father or mother that has back- 
slidden whose children haven't gone to ruin. I think the 
hardest people to reach are the sons and daughters of 
backsliders. I have had them say to me, "You say 
there is so much joy in religion; if there is, why did my 
father and mother give it up?" They stumble there. I 
must confess it is one of the hardest things to get over. 
I cannot understand it. I remember working with an old 
white-haired backslider in St. Louis, and I sat up with 
him until eleven o'clock at night. At last he wiped away 
his tears and said, " I will come back," and that night I 
really believe God restored unto him the joy of salvation. 
But the next night, when I was preaching he sat right in 
front of me. I don't think I ever saw a man look so 
pitiful. When I went into the inquiry-room he followed 
me in. I turned to him and said, ' ' What is the trouble?" 



528 Moody's sermons. 

"O, Mr. Moody, this has been the darkest day of my 
life!" " That is singular. I thought God restored the 
joy of salvation to you last night." "So He did. I 
think God has spoken peace and forgiveness to my soul, 
but I have a large family of children here in this city. 
They are all married. I spent the day calling on my 
sons ard daughters, and if you will believe it, Mr. Moody, 
there wasn't one of them but what called me an old 
fool. I have led them into iniquity and cannot call them 
back." 

I want to say to you mothers and fathers here to-day, 
that it is much easier to lead your children into Sodom 
than to get them back. May God show us the truth'. 
And if there is a backslider here to-day, may God bring 
him back. You make money by going into Sodom and 
the world, "but thine own wickedness shall correct thee, 
and thy backslidings shall reprove thee. " 

O, backslider, come back to-day. Don't wait until 
the whole family have been ruined. O, may God stir 
us up to-day! I want to give you a little advice. If you 
have gone astray just come back. I have been here only a 
few days and if I was called away suddenly, do you think 
I would go without saying anything to the committee? 
Did you ever hear of a sinner going to Jesus Christ and 
bidding him good-by? Did you ever hear of a sinner 
going into his closet and saying, ' ' I have known you, 
Lord, for twenty years, but I have tired of your company. 
I am tired of the Bible, tired of prayer, tired of Sabbath- 
school work, tired of church and church work, and I have 
come to bid- you farewell. Good-by, I am going back to 
the world." Did you ever hear of such a thing? You 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 529 

never did and never will, but I tell you, you have just 
run off without saying good-by to the Lord. You have 
no excuse, don't try to make one, but just come back 
to-day, tell Him you are sorry you have wronged Him. 
O, may the backslider come home ! 



THAT -ELDER BROTHER." 



I have selected a very difficult subject, difficult one to 
get people interested in. I ain afraid you may get the 
chills before I am through, for I think it is one of the 
coldest subjects you can find in the whole Bible. It is 
about that elder brother of whom I have been reading. 

When I was in Europe once, Mr. Spurgeon gave me a 
copy of all his sermons, and out of the whole volume, 
between thirty and forty, I couldn't find one solitary 
sermon he had ever preached about that elder brother. I 
have tried a number of times to get interested, but I must 
confess that it is hard to get my heart warmed up to- 
ward it. 

This elder brother thought he Was all right. I heard of 
a man when I was across the sea who thought so much 
of himself that he used to shake hands with himself every 
morning. He was an elder brother. Now, if you ever 
had to live in a house with a man that never did wrong I 
pity you. If you wives have a husband that never does 
wrong I pity you. Do you know why? Because, if any- 
thing goes wrong, it is you that has to suffer, he doesn't. 
All the blame falls upon you. He is an elder brother. 
There has been a hot discussion for ages about who those 
ninety-nine arethat we read about in this fifteenth chap- 
ter of Luke. Some think they are the angels that have 

530 




Joseph Sold Into Egypt. Genesis, xxxvii. 



THAT "ELDER BROTHER." 533 

never fallen; some think they are a sort of angelic people 
and don't need to be converted, they are so pure and up- 
right naturally. I believe they are the people who think 
they are all right. You will notice that the chapter be- 
gins with a murmur, and closes in the same way. They 
Were finding fault with Christ because He was receiving 
sinners, and saving the lost. 

Now, this elder brother was angry because the wanderer 
had come home. A lady came to me some years ago, and 
wanted me to get her daughter into a seminary with 
which I was connected, but she said, ' ' I want to be frank 
with you, I want you to know that I do not believe in 
your theology." "My theology! I didn't know I had 
any. I wish you would tell me what my theology is." 
" Well," she said, " I don't agree with your preaching,' 
"What is it you don't agree with?" "Well," she said, 
"your views about that elder brother are the most 
abominable I ever heard of." I said, " You are the first 
person I ever heard try to uphold him. What are his good 
traits? What are his noble qualities?" "Why! he 
stayed at home with his father and took care of him, and 
his younger brother ran off and left him." " Took care 
of his father! Why! the last I read about him he was 
outside of the house in a mad fit, and his father couldn't 
get him in." O, yes, he took care of his father! These 
elder brothers are the hardest people in the world to get 
in because they think they are already there. It is said 
that in Berlin one day a German minister had this ques- 
tion up for discussion, who the ninety-nine were, and 
who the elder brother was. He was a great preacher, 
and he got up in a meeting and said he had seen the 
elder brother the day before. " Saw him! Where did 



534 Moody's sermons. 

you see him? Saw the elder brother!" "Yes, when I 
looked into the looking-glass I saw him. I saw myself." 
He found himself envious of another minister, and he 
was an elder brother. I tell you what, there are a good 
many more elder brothers than prodigals, after all. There 
are a lot of us pretty near kin to that elder brother. Men 
go to church regularly, but I tell you a man that gets 
angry because the sexton puts a man into his pew who 
isn't dressed in the height of fashion, I believe belongs to 
this school. If you want to find out where they are, just 
tell thern of a poor drunkard that has been reclaimed, 
and see their eyes open, and hear them say, "I don't 
believe in that kind of thing." You have got a lot of 
them right here, I have no doubt of that. You take and 
follow this elder brother down through all the beatitudes, 
and you will find that he fails in every solitary one of 
them. Now just hear what Christ says, "Blessed are 
the poor in spirit." He poor in spirit? Not he! The 
Lord says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." A man 
may be rich and have a broken heart, but there is a 
blessing upon him if he has. "Blessed are they that 
mourn." Did this man mourn? For what? He had 
nothing to mourn over; he had never done a wrong 
thing in all his life. "Blessed are the meek." Was 
he meek? There was not a single trace of meekness 
about him. That Pharisee that went up to the temple 
to pray with the poor publican, did he know anything 
about meekness? "I thank thee, Lord, that I am not 
like other men; I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all 
I possess." I, I, I. Five great capital I's in a little 
short prayer of only a few words. There was not a 
prayer about it. He was just boasting and bragging. 



THAT " ELDER BROTHER." 535 

That is just what this elder brother was doing. ' ' Blessed 
are they which do hunger and thirst." He hunger and 
thirst after righteousness? He had so much he didn't 
know what to do with it. "Blessed are the merciful." 
He merciful? He was very merciful to his old father, 
wasn't he? He was kind to his old father, wasn't he? 
O, I pity a father who has to be taken care of by such 
a son as that; sticking thorns into his old father's heart 
in the evening of life! (i Blessed are the pure in heart." 
Was he pure in heart? " Blessed are the peace makers." 
Was he a peace maker? Breaking up the most peace- 
ful scene this world ever saw! That old father sitting at 
the table with a peace and joy that had never before 
come to him, and that elder brother just broke it up. I 
see that father's face just beaming with joy and delight 
when the servants whisper that Levi is outside mad, and 
will not come in. And I see the old man get up, all the 
joy gone from his face, and go out and entreat his son to 
come in, but he is in a mad fit, and the old man cannot 
get him into the house. I tell you I think he had a 
mighty mean son. Don't you? That is my opinion. 
" Blessed are they that are persecuted." And that is the 
kind of religion that this world believes in. The whole 
country talked about the nobility of this young man. I 
am afraid that if we had him now we would make him a 
deacon or elder in the church. He is all right. All right 
in the sight of the world. He is never persecuted. But 
now, you just take and read that man's life, and what do 
you find? You find that he was sour. O, how many 
sour ones you meet now! They growl and grumble all 
the time. Sour! He was a touchy young man. Have 
you any touchy people among your acquaintances? That 



536 Moody's sermons. 

is just what this young man was — touchy. He was very 
angry. Why? Because his brother had come back. 

Did you ever know what caused the thrill of joy in 
heaven, and the thumps in that old man's breast? I be- 
lieve that is the only chapter in the whole Bible that tells 
what causes joy in heaven. That elder brother was self- 
righteous. He was selfish, and supremely so. There is 
not a thing in that man's character that is lovely after 
all. But how grandly that father shines out. " Son!" 
(he didn't call him any bad names) "Son! thou art ever 
with me. All that I have is thine." O, it makes me 
feel rich when I read that. That is liberty. You know 
in France, when anarchy was overthrown, they selected 
for their motto, "Fraternity, Equality, Liberty." That 
was what they wanted, and that is just what this father 
wanted with those two boys. He wanted them to be 
with him. That is what God wants every sinner to do. 

I remember once I was very busy getting up a sermon, 
and my little boy came into my room. I wanted to get 
rid of him just as quickly as possible. And I said to him, 
" My son, what do you want?" He threw his arm around 
my neck and kissed me, and said, "I don't want any- 
thing; I just love you." I couldn't send him away, and 
I got down all his toys for him, and let him stay in the 
room with me; and every once in a while I looked over 
my book and saw him just as happy as he could be. 
That is just what the Lord wants. He wants the elder 
brother to come in, and just have liberty and fraternity. 
"Son, all I have is thine." And that is just what the 
younger brother did not want when he went away. But 
he came back and wanted it, and when he wanted it, the 
elder brother didn't want it. Now, one went down 



THAT " ELDER BROTHER. 537 

through the sin of his licentiousness, and the other went 
down through the sin of pride and self-conceit, and one 
is just as black and vile as the other. There is no dif- 
ference. I tell you what, it is a good thing to take a 
mirror and get a good look at ourselves once in a while 
and see what we are, for it is a sort of family disease. 

But I am not going to dwell any longer upon that elder 
brother, for I must confess it is not a very interesting sub- 
ject. But I just want to say that I have had that man 
brought up to me very often in the most ridiculous ways. 
Some say that certain people don't need to be converted. 
"That kind of preaching that Mr. Moody is doing here 
is out of place. If he would go among the slums of our 
large cities and preach it to those lost souls, it would be 
all right. But we don't need it. We are cultured and 
refined, and we do not need any such preaching." They 
think they are all right. " We are piling up a righteous- 
ness of our own." I want to say that that elder brother 
needed to be converted just as much as the younger. 
You put a man that has been living in wickedness and sin 
on the crystal pavement, and it would be hell to him. 
Put a man under the very shadow of the tree of life with 
the spirit of the elder brother, and it would be hell to him. 
I can imagine the first man he sees he greets with the 
question, "Who were you when you were on earth?" 
"The thief on the cross." "I never associated with 
thieves or murderers when I was upon earth, and I shall 
not up here." And to the first woman he meets he says, 
" Who were you when on earth?" And with a beautiful 
smile on her face, " I was Mary Magdalene. That wom- 
an that had seven devils in her." " I never associated 
with such people on earth, and I won't up here." He 



538 Moody's sermons. 

couldn't associate with the blood-bought up in heaven. 
He couldn't sing the song of Moses and the Lamb with 
such people. He must have a little heaven of his own. 
He climbed up some other way. The Lord said, ' ' They 
are thieves and robbers." I think once in a while it 
would be good to preach to the elder brothers, and I 
think there are a great many of them in the churches. 
They think because they live a moral life they are all 
right. They can be proud and as vile and black as hell 
itself, not fit for the kingdom of God. 

Now, did you ever notice that four times Christ uses 
this word, " except''? "Except your righteousness ex- 
ceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye 
shall in no wise enter the kingdom of God." That was 
said to the elder-brother school of men when Christ was 
on earth. Then again he said to the same class of peo- 
ple, "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." 
Another time He said to that same class, "Except ye 
become converted, and become as little children, ye can- 
not see the kingdom of God." Don't you trust in your 
moral life; that is not going to save you. God will strip 
you of every rag of your own righteousness. You must 
have the righteousness of another. It was to Nicodemus, 
not to the poor woman at the well, that Christ said, 
" Except ye become converted and become as little chil- 
dren, ye cannot see the kingdom of God." Now, it is 
clearly taught that there must be a new spirit and new 
life, before we can see the kingdom of God. You can 
see a great many things, but there is one thing you can- 
not see; you cannot see the kingdom of God; you can- 
not buy or educate yourself into the kingdom. There is 
only one way, and that is to be born into it. You may 



THAT " ELDER BROTHER. 539 

go across this continent to the Pacific coast and see there 
trees that have been growing for ages, but that truth that 
grows in the midst of the paradise of God your uncircum- 
cised eye shall never rest upon unless you are born again. 
You may see the prince of Wales and the crown prince 
of Russia, but I tell you the Prince of Peace who is going 
to sit in glory, you shall never see as your prince unless 
you are born again. You may see the rivers of earth, but 
there is one river that flows through the paradise of God 
that your uncircumcised eye shall not see until you are 
born again. You may look that sainted mother in the 
face to-day, but bear in mind that the time is coming 
when you are going to be separated. You may look at 
your little innocent child, but remember that a separa- 
tion is going to come. If that child dies in early child- 
hood, the Master will take it to Himself, and you will not 
be permitted to sit in the kingdom with that child until 
you are born again. " There is joy in the presence of 
God over one sinner that repenteth." There must be 
true repentance before we can be born again. Now, I 
can imagine some of you say, ' ' [ have known that for 
years, but I wish I could be converted this afternoon." 
A lady told me once that for a long time she had made 
up her mind to be converted, and that she believed that 
if she was converted she could overcome the temptation 
that had crossed her path. 

You can be converted before I get through speaking. 
"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the 
earth; for I am God, and there is none else. " Isaiah, 
xlv, 22. 

I remember, at a terrible battle, at M , for two 

days and nights I had been looking after a wounded and 



54° Moody's sermons. 

dying soldier. I was so sleepy that I went off to get a 
little rest. I had only just fallen asleep, when a soldier 
came and woke me up. He said there was a man that 
wanted to see me; I was only half awake, and I said, 
" You tell him, I will be around in the morning." But 
he said, " If you see him at all, you will have to come 
right away." I got up and followed him, and when I 
reached the man's side, I sat at the head of the bed, and 
he said, "Well, chaplain, I have sent for you to see if 
you can help me die." I said, "My friend, I would 
gladly help you if I could, but I cannot. I would take 
you into my arms and carry you into the kingdom of God, 
if I could, but I cannot do that." Then he told me a little 
of his history. When he was enlisting for the army his 
mother threw her arms round his neck, and kissing him 
said, "I could let you go into the army, my boy, if you 
were a Christian, but the thought that you may die with- 
out hope almost kills me. " "I told her, when the war was 
over, I would come home and be a Christian. She said, 
' It may be too late then.' I told her I would risk it." 
And now, he said, "Here I am dying, away from home 
and mother. It is hard to die alone. I wish you could 
help me." I began to tell him of Christ, but I couldn't 
get him to lay hold of one of the promises. The cold, icy 
hand of death was feeling for his cords. A life was fast 
ebbing away, and I felt so sad to have him die at that 
midnight hour, away from home and friends. But I 
couldn't see and believe for him. I read to him the con- 
versation that Christ had with Nicodemus about being 
born again, and I read the third chapter of John slowly 
and carefully. His ears were open to catch every word. 
I went on reading, and when I got down to the fourteenth 



THAT ''ELDER BROTHER. 541 

verse, the dying man cried, "Stop; is that there?" 
"Yes," I said, "it is here." " O, I didn't know that 
was in the Bible. Read those few verses again." And I 
began again; his elbows resting on the edge of the cot, 
he brought his dying hands together, his eyes began to 
light up, and he said, "That sounds good, chaplain, 
read it to me once again," and I read it again. "As 
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
must the son of man be lifted up, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." 
I went on reading, and the dying man closed his eyes, 
folded his arms across his breast, and there was a beauti- 
ful smile upon his face. Then there was an hour of ter- 
rible agony. I read through the chapter, and when I 
got through, I noticed his lips were moving. I bent 
down to listen, and I heard him whispering this verse, 
' ' As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even 
so must the son of man be lifted up." He opened his 
eyes, fixed his calm, sweet, deathly look upon me, and 
said, "Chaplain, you needn't read any more to me now; 
I understand it now." 

I want to say to this audience to-day, that if I was 
dying, that would be my only hope of eternal life. 

It is not that I have preached the gospel or tried to 
lift up men, but that He has made it possible for me to 
be saved, and I do thank God for the gospel that saves 
all that come to Him. The dying man said, ' ' I am not 
alone now. I love Him." Then I left him, and went to 
get a few hours' sleep. When I went back to his cot, 
I found it empty. I said to the officer, "Did you stay 
with him until he died?" "Yes, he only lived an hour or 
two, after you left." "What did he say when he was 



542 MOODYS SERMONS. 

dying?" "O, he kept repeating this verse, 'As Moses 
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the 
son of man be lifted up.'" When the dying hour came, 
he just pillowed his dying head upon those words, and 
took his seat in the chariot of God. 

I thank God that Christ has been offered as a sacrifice 
for the sins of the world, and every soul can be saved 
now, if he will. 




Noah Cursing Ham. Genesis, ix. 



OBEDIENCE TO GOD'S COMMANDS. 



I want to call your attention to a text that you will 
find in the seventh chapter of Genesis, first verse. When 
God speaks, you and I can afford to listen. It is not 
man speaking now, but it is God. "The Lord said 
unto Noah. Come thou and all thy house into the 
ark. " 

Perhaps some skeptic has drifted in here to-day, and 
perhaps some church member will join with him and say, 
44 1 hope he is not going to preach about the ark. I 
thought that was given up by all intelligent people." 
But I want to say that I haven't given it up. When I 
do, I am going to give up the whole Bible. There is no 
portion of the Scripture but that the Son of God set His 
seal to when He was down here in the world. Men say, 
" I don't believe in the story of the flood." Christ con- 
nected His own return to this world with that flood. 
Men say they don't believe the story of Lot and his wife 
and those cities being destroyed with judgment from on 
high. I believe it just as much as I do the third chapter 
of John. I pity any man that is going into the pulpit 
and picking that old book to pieces. The moment that 
we give up any one of those things, we touch the deity of 
the Son of God. I have noticed that when a man does 
begin to pick the Bible to pieces it doesn't take him 

545 



546 Moody's sermons. 

mote than five years to tear it all to pieces. What is 
the use of being five years about what you can do in 
five minutes? 

But I am not here to defend the Bible. It will take 
care of itself. I want to talk about the text. One hun- 
dred and twenty years before, Noah had received the 
most awful communication that ever came from heaven 
to earth. No man up to that time, and I think no man 
since, has ever received such a communication. God 
said that on account of the wickedness of the world He 
was going to destroy the world by water. For one hun- 
dred and twenty years God strove with those antedilu- 
vians. He never smites without warning, and they had 
their warning. If they had repented and cried as they 
did at Nineveh, God would have heard their cry and 
spared them, I believe. But there was no cry for mercy. 
I have no doubt but that they ridiculed the idea that 
Christ was going to destroy the world. I have no doubt 
but that there were atheists who said there wasn't any 
God anyhow. I got hold of one of them some time ago, 
and he said there was no God. I said, "How do you 
account for the formation of the world?" "O, force 
and matter work together, and by chance the world was 
created." I said, "It is a singular thing that your 
tongue isn't on the top of your head if force and matter 
just threw it together in that manner." If I should take 
out my watch and say that force and matter worked to- 
gether, and out came the watch, you would say I was a 
lunatic of the first order. Wouldn't you? And yet they 
say that this old world was made by chance! " It threw 
itself together!" I met a man in Scotland, and he took 
the ground that there was no God; and I said to him, 



OBEDIENCE TO GODS COMMANDS. 547 

"Howdoyou account for creation, for all these rocks?" 
"Why," he said, "any schoolboy could account for 
that." "Well, how was the first rock made?" " Out of 
sand." " Well, how was the first sand made?" " Out 
of rock." I have no doubt but that Noah had these men 
to contend with. 

Then there was a class called agnostics, and there are 
a good many of their grandchildren, too. Then there 
was another class who said they believed there was a 
God. They couldn't make themselves believe that the 
world happened by chance; but God was too merciful to 
punish sin. He was so full of compassion and love that 
he couldn't punish sin; the drunkard, the harlot, the 
gambler, the murderer, the thief and the libertine would 
all share alike at the end. Supposing the governor of 
your state was so tender-hearted that he couldn't bear to 
have a man suffer, couldn't bear to see a man put in jail, 
and he should go and set all the prisoners free. How 
long would he be governor? You would have him out of 
office before the sun set. These very men that talk 
about God's mercy would be the first to raise a cry against 
a governor who wouldn't have a man put in prison when 
he had done wrong. 

Then another class took the ground that God couldn't 
destroy the world anyway. They might have a great 
flood which would rise up to the meadowland and low- 
land, but all it would be necessary to do would be to go 
up on the hills and mountains. That would be a hun- 
dred times better than Noah's ark. Or if it should come 
to that, they could build rafts. They could make rafts 
which would be a good deal better than that ark. They 
had never seen such an ugly looking thing. But Noah 



548 Moody's sermons. 

had received his orders to build that ark. Some one has 
suggested that Noah must have been daft, as the Scotch 
say. But when God spoke, Noah heard, and when God 
commanded, he just obeyed. 

Noah is off on a preaching tour to warn his countrymen 
of the coming deluge. I have no doubt but that they 
told him to go back and mind his own business. I tell 
you there were more bitter things said against Noah than 
is said against any minister in our day. I don't believe 
we know anything about it. If there were saloons in 
those days (and I haven't any doubt but that there were), 
Noah was the song of the drunkard, and the} 7 had a good 
many jokes about Noah's madness and folly. In the sight 
of those men, Noah was the maddest man in the world. 
1 have no doubt about that. And if they had theaters, 
they probably had Noah's ark represented on the stage. 
And so all manner of sport was made of Noah and his 
ark. And the business men went on buying and selling, 
while Noah went on preaching and toiling. They per- 
haps had some astronomers, and they were gazing up at 
the stars and saying, " Don't you be concerned; there is 
no sign of a coming storm in the heavens. We are very 
wise men, and if there was a storm coming, we should 
read it in the heavens. " And they had geologists 
digging away, and they said, ' ' There is no sign in the 
earth. " 

Time rolls on; one hundred years have passed away, 
and some of the old men have passed away and gone, 
and they died saying, ' ' Noah is wrong. " And then 1 
suppose there was a large class that took the ground that 
Noah must be wrong because he was so in the minority. 
That is a great argument now, you know. Noah was 



OBEDIENCE TO GODS COMMANDS. 549 

greatly in the minority. But he goes on working. One 
hundred and twenty years have passed; time flies, and 
he hasn't got a single convert outside of his family. Poor 
Noah, he must have had a hard time of it. I don't think 
I have the grace to go one hundred and twenty years and 
not have a convert. No, sir! That is hard work. Not 
a convert outside his own family! That is grace for you! 
Noah must have had a lot of it to have held on. But he 
just toiled on. The ark is finished, and I tell you, the 
day it was completed it was looked upon as the most 
contemptible thing in the world. They wouldn't 
have had their names connected with that old ark for 
anything. 

But I can imagine one beautiful morning, not a cloud 
to be seen, perhaps in the spring, Noah has got his com- 
munication. He has heard the voice that he heard one 
hundred and twenty years before — the same old voice. 
Perhaps there had been silence for one hundred and 
twenty years. But the voice rang through his soul one 
night, "Noah, come thou and all thy house into the 
ark." And you can see Noah and all his family moving 
into the ark. They are bringing the household furniture. 
The neighbors are talking. They say, "Every year 
before he has planted, but this year he thinks the world 
is going to be destroyed, and he hasn't planted anything. '' 
They think he will come to want. This morning, when 
they see him moving, some of his neighbors say, " Noah^ 
what is your hurry? You will have plenty of time to get 
into that old ark. What is your hurry? There are no 
windows, and you cannot look out to see when the storm 
is coming." But he heard the voice and obeyed. 
" Come thou and all thy house into the ark." Then they 



550 MOODY S SERMONS. 

see the fowls of the air flying in pairs toward the ark, all 
manner of beasts coming up from their dens and caves as 
if sent by some unseen hand, and Noah standing at the 
door to receive them. And I can imagine some of them 
crying out, "Merciful God! what does this mean?" and 
the wise men say, "We don't know just what it means, 
but there is no danger. Don't you be alarmed. Be quiet. 
If the flood comes, we can build rafts better than that 
ark." And do you know, when they had all gone in, 
God gave the world seven days' grace? Did you ever 
know that? If there had been a cry during those seven 
days, I believe it would have been heard. But there was 
none. At length the last day had come, the last hour, 
the last minute, ay, the last second. God Almighty came 
down and shut the door of that ark. No angel, no man, 
but God Himself shut that door, and when once the mas- 
ter of the house has risen and shut the door, the doom 
of the world is sealed; and the doom of that old world 
was forever sealed. The sun had gone down upon the 
glory of that old world for the last time. You can hear 
away off in the distance the mutterings of the storm, of 
the coming judgment; you can hear the thunder rolling, 
the lightning begins to flash, and the old world reels. 
The storm bursts upon them, and that old ark of 
Noah's would have been worth more than the whole 
world to them. 

I want to say to any scoffer that has come in here 
to-day, you can laugh at that old Bible, you can scoff at 
your mother's God, you can laugh at ministers and Chris- 
tians, but the hour is coming when one promise in that 
old book will oe worth more to you than ten thousand 
worlds like this. 



OBEDIENCE TO GODS COMMANDS. 55 1 

I have no doubt that these antediluvians rushed to the 
door of that ark and shouted, " Noah, Noah, let us in.'' 
Hark! Noah speaks, " I cannot open the door; God has 
shut it." Isn't it sad? There is no trifling now, no 
levity now, no mocking now, no derision now. Mark ye! 
don't forget it; the last hour is going to come to each one 
of us. Some of us are spending our last week of prayer 
on earth. To me this week has been very solemn. I 
have thought it may be my last week of prayer. I thank 
God for the week, for the minutes I have been permitted 
to spend in this hall, but there is a tinge of sadness when 
I think it is passing. I look down upon these old men 
and women, and think they will be gone in a year. The 
last week, the last hour, the last minute is bound to 
come, and I tell you, it is a very solemn thing. If it 
should come now, would it find us inside or outside of the 
ark? You may scoff at it, but it is a very important 
question. Are all your children in? Are all your grand- 
children in? Listen. [ selected this text because I 
wanted to speak as a father, not as a preacher. Don't 
rest day or night until you get your children in. I believe 
my children have fifty temptations where I had one. I 
am one of those who believe that in these great cities 
there is a snare set upon the corner of every street for 
our sons and daughters; and I don't believe it is our 
business to spend our time in accumulating bonds and 
stocks. Have I done all I can to get my children in? 
That is it. Now, let me ask you this question: What 
would have been Noah's feelings if when God called him 
into the ark, his children wouldn't have gone with him? 
If he had lived such a false life that his children wouldn't 
have gone in with him, what would have been his feel- 



552 Moody's sermons. 

ings? Come! haven't we got something to do? Are we 
doing all we can to get them in? Some one sent me a 
paper a number of years ago when I was in the old 
country marked "copy," and trie article that was marked 
was this: "Are all the children in?" I read it. An old 
wife lay dying, she was nearly one hundred years of age, 
and the husband who had taken the journey with her sat 
by her side. She was just breathing faintly, but suddenly 
she revived, opened her eyes and said, "Why, it is 
dark." " Yes, Janet, it is dark." " Is it night?" " O, 
yes! it is midnight." " Are all the children in?" There 
was that old mother living life over again. Her youngest 
child had been in the grave twenty years, but she was 
traveling back into the old days, and the dear old mother 
fell asleep in Christ, asking, " Are all the children in?" 
Dear friend, are they all in? Put the question to your- 
self to-day. Is John in? Is James in? Is he in, or is 
he immersed in business and pleasure? Is he living, a 
double and dishonest life? Say! where is your boy, 
mother? Where is your son, your daughter? Is it well 
with your children? Can you say it is? 

After being superintendent of a Sunday-school in Chi- 
cago for a number of years, a school of over a thousand 
members, children that came from godless homes, work- 
ing hard, and to have mothers and fathers working 
against me, taking the children off on excursions on Sun- 
day and doing all they could to break up the work I was 
trying to do, I used to think that if I could ever stand 
before an audience I would speak to no one but parents 
— that would be my chief business. It is an old saying, 
"Get the lamb, and you will get the sheep." I gave 
that up years ago. Give me the sheep, and then I will 



OBEDIENCE TO GOD'S COMMANDS. 553 

have some one to nurse the lambs. But you get a lamb 
and convert him, and if he has a godless father and 
mother you will have little chance with that child. 
What we want is godly homes. The home was estab- 
lished long before the church. I remember the first 
speech I ever made in this line. I had gone down tc 
Michigan to a meeting, and when I got up I noticed 
that about two-thirds of the audience were adults. I 
went at parents, and my whole address was right at 
parents. When I got through a man got up, and I 
thought he was going to rebuke me. I sat there tremb- 
ling, but he arose and said, " I want to indorse all that 
young man has said. Sixteen years ago I was in a 
heathen country, and my wife died, and left me with 
three little children. The first Sabbath after my wife 
died my little dsughter came to me and said, 'Papa, 
shan't I take the children into mother's room and talk to 
them as mother used to?' I said she might, and she led 
them off into the same chamber as the mother used to. 
When they came out I noticed they had all been weep- 
ing, and I said, 'What have you been crying about?' I 
supposed they had been crying for their mother. Little 
Nolly said, 'Well, papa, I couldn't help it. We had all 
prayed, and I was just going to bring them out here, 
when little Susie made a prayer of her own. ' ' What did 
she say?' 'O God, you have taken away my poor 
mamma, and I haven't any mamma to pray for me any 
more. Won't you please make me good, just as my 
mamma was?' " 

She has lived a consistent Christian life for these six- 
teen years. As a little child God used her, and I want 
to 3-sk the fathers and mothers here if you believe your 



554 MOODY S SERMONS. 

children can come thus early into the ark. I believe 
that the enemy has taken advantage of us. I haven't 
any sympathy with the idea that our children have got to 
grow up before they are converted. Once I saw a lady 
with three daughters at her side, and I stepped up to the 
mother and asked her if she was a Christian. " Yes, sir." 

Then I asked the oldest daughter if she was a Christian. 
Her chin began to quiver, and the tears came into her 
eyes, and she said, "I wish I was." .And the mother 
looked very angrily at me and said, "I don't want you 
to speak to my children on that subject. They don't 
understand." And in great rage she took them all away 
from me. One daughter was fourteen years old, one 
twelve, and the other ten, but they weren't old enough 
to be talked to about religion. Let them drift into the 
world and plunge into worldly amusements, and then see 
how hard it is to reach them. Many a mother is mourn- 
ing to-day because her boy has gone beyond her reach 
and will not allow her to pray with him. She may pray 
for him, but he will not let her pray or talk with him. 
In those days, when his mind was tender and young, she 
might have led him to Christ. Bring them in. " Suffer 
the little children to come unto Me." Is there a prayer- 
less father to-day? May God let the arrow go down into 
your soul! Make up your mind, God helping you, you 
are going to get the children in. 

I heard of a man once who had a boy that had been 
sick some time, and he came home one day and found his 
wife weeping. She said, " I cannot help but believe 
that this is going to prove fatal." And the man started 
and said, " If you think so, I wish you would tell him." 
But the mother could not tell her boy. The father went 



OBEDIENCE TO GODS COMMANDS. 555 

to the sick-room and he saw that death was feeling for 
the cords of life, and he said, "My son, do you know 
you are not going to live?" And the little fellow looked 
up and said, " No. Is this death I feel stealing over me? 
Will I die to-day?" ' ' Yes, my son, you cannot live the 
day out." And the little fellow smiled and said, " Well, 
father, I shall be with Jesus to-night, shan't I?" " Yes, 
you will spend the night with the Lord," and the father 
broke down and wept. The little fellow saw the tears 
and said, "Don't you weep for me. I will go to Jesus 
and tell Him that ever since I can remember you have 
prayed for me." 

I have three children, and if God should take them 
from me I would rather have them take such a message 
home to Him than to have the wealth of the whole world. 
O, I would to God I could say something to stir 
you fathers and mothers to get your children into the 
ark. 



NO ROOM FOR CHRIST." 



" And they laid Him in the manger, because there was no room for 
them in the inn." 

I want to show, if I can, that the human heart is very 
much like that inn at Bethlehem; no room for Christ. 

For four thousand years every true son of God, from 
the time that Adam fell, away back there in Eden, down 
to the time that Christ made His appearance in Beth- 
lehem, had been looking forward to Hij coming, and the 
mothers in Israel had been praying that they might be 
the mother of that child, and yet when He arrives the 
first thing we hear is that there is no room for Him. 

It may be that some of you are saying, " If they had 
known who He was, there had been plenty of room, there 
would have been the booming of cannon, the ringing of 
bells, the playing of bands, and a shout go up from the 
true sons of God, at Bethlehem, and in Jerusalem," but 
I am not sure of that, because we read that when the 
wise men arrived to declare that He was He that was 
born king of the Jews, not only Herod, but all Jerusalem 
was troubled at the fact that He had come. 

When the prince of Wales came to this country, I was 
a young man in Chicago, and I remember that the city 

556 




The Fligth Into Egypt. ' Matthew, ii. 13-15. 



"NO ROOM FOR CHRIST. 559 

went wild with excitement. It was thought that there 
was nothing good enough in that western city for him. 
The hospitality of the city was given to him, and he 
could have the very best there was in every city; not 
only the east, but the south and west extended invita- 
tions for him to come and visit them. The papers were 
discussing what he came for. I remember one said that 
he came to look into the republican form of government, 
another that he came for his health, another that he 
came to kill a few buffaloes. I don't remember that he 
told us what his visit was for. I don't know that the 
country was any wiser or better for his coming; but one 
thing I do know, that when the Prince of Heaven came 
down, He did not come on any secret mission, but told 
us what He came for; to seek that which was lost, to 
bind up the broken-hearted, and comfort those who 
mourn; He came from heaven to earth bringing a glo- 
rious gospel with tidings to a lost world, and when He 
came, there was not room for Him in the inn; no one 
wanted Him. 

You may, perhaps, say that if He came to-night it 
would be different, but I am not sure of that. I remem- 
ber after He went back to Nazareth, after His fame had 
spread throughout the country, and they were anxious to 
find out if He was going to perform any miracles, on the 
first Lord's day He went into the synagogue where they 
were reading the prophecy found in the sixty-first chap- 
ter of Isaiah, and they offered Him the book that He 
might read to the people, every eye was on Him; un- 
doubtedly there was great excitement in the audience, 
and He read that grand prophecy, "The spirit of the 
Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to 



560 Moody's sermons. 

preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to 
bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the 
captives and the opening of the prison to them that are 
bound." 

You know He had come to lift that town higher than 
any other town on earth, to be the most famous town in 
the history, but they never allowed Him to preach the 
sermon; He would have probably given them as grand a 
sermon as the sermon on the mount, but they drove Him 
out of the synagogue, and took Him to the brow of the 
hill and would have hurled Him into perdition. That is 
the human heart; because He didn't preach to suit them, 
they wouldn't have Him. I have often tried to picture 
that scene, as He stood outside of the walls of that little 
town of Galilee, rejected by His own kindred; what must 
have been the loneliness that came over Him as He stood 
there? 

Then He went to Capernaum, where He healed many 
people of diseases, gave sight to the blind, caused lepers 
to leap for joy, and went on performing miracles; but it 
was not long before they began to hoot at Him, before 
the crowds began to scatter, and then He went from 
Capernaum to Jerusalem, and it was not long before they 
were hooting at him there. It was nothing but persecu- 
tion day after day. In that city of Jerusalem, which He 
loved better than any on earth, because there was his 
Father's house, and there in the temple He taught the 
pure doctrine till we find there was a storm soon to rise 
in that city against Him that would sweep Him to Cal- 
vary, there wasn't room for Him; they didn't want 
Him. There is not a country to-day that wants Jesus 
Ghrist. This country is called a Christian country, but 



"NO ROOM FOR CHRIST." 561 

do you think America has got room for Christ? Do you 
know of a state in the union that if it were put to popular 
vote, and you women had a chance to vote, that would 
have Him back to reign? I don't believe it. When it 
comes to a personal Christ, letting Him be Lord over 
you, your master, your king, then it is that people draw 
back, and although the gospel has been preached for 
nineteen hundred years, there is yet no room. Let a 
man get up in parliament, in England, and say, " Thus 
saith the Lord, "and they would hoot him out; or let 
him get up in the chamber of deputies in France and say 
the same, and what a scene there would be! Go into 
Germany, and it would be the same. It is a solemn 
statement, but it is nevertheless true. You doubt the 
statement, many of you; I will come a little nearer home, 
right into your own churches, and I will tell you that 
there are a good many churches that don't want Him. I 
hate to make this statement, but it is true. They want 
a fashionable man, an orator, and the result is that many 
of our churches are whitedsepulchers, having no spiritual 
power; no room for Christ. 

We read in one place that He looked toward heaven, 
and sighed. I can imagine Him looking into the world 
on high where He was honored, where all loved Him, and 
just longing for the smile of that loving Father. Around 
Him was sickness, pestilence, disease and death. He 
came to heal the sick, give life to the dead, raise those 
who were fallen, and they didn't want His pity and His 
help. I have often thought that I would like to have 
met Him in Jerusalem when He was on earth, but I sup- 
pose that if I had lived in that city, my home would have 
been closed against Him. Jesus, before whom the morn- 



562 Moody's sermons. 

ing stars sang together, who had power given Him in 
heaven and earth, came down into this dark earth, and 
although He was rich, the only cradle He had was a 
borrowed one, His grave was a borrowed one, and the 
only time He ever rode, it was on a borrowed beast. And 
He became poor that He might get into sympathy with 
people like you and me; and yet when He got through 
with His ministry, there were not more than five hundred 
that were really loyal to Him, after all His years of 
preaching and ministry. No wonder that He looked to- 
ward heaven and sighed. Did you ever have the feeling 
that no one cared for you, and that the world didn't want 
you, and you felt like putting an end to your life? The 
Son of God had many such hours down here, hours that 
His disciples could not enter into, and it must have 
crushed the very life out of Him at times. 

It has always been a mystery to me that a woman can 
turn against the Son of God, for there is not a country to- 
day where Christ is not preached but woman is either 
a slave or a toy. In India, where Buddha taught, in 
China, where Confucius taught. I said when I was in 
Jerusalem that if I had my choice in a Mohammedan 
country, of being born a woman or a donkey, I would be 
a donkey, for it is treated better than a woman. See 
what Christ has done for woman in Christian lands, and 
yet women sit down and talk against Christ. I want to 
say in passing that it is not recorded that the daughters 
of Jerusalem lifted up their voices against the Son of 
God, and some of those women were loyal to Him, but I 
am sorry to say I fear they were very few, but in the storm 
that was gathering around Him, and which grew blacker 
and blacker, there is a star that comes out in the darkness, 



"NO ROOM FOR CHRIST." 563 

that shines like a diamond, and that star rose over the 
Mount of Olives that slept over that little town of 
Bethany. We learn that there was a woman by the 
name of Martha that received Him into her home. When 
a universal hiss was going up against Him, there was a 
little family there in Bethany, which had the moral 
courage to make room for Him in their home. There 
was a dark cloud hanging over them then, but Martha 
and Mary did not know it. I can imagine that Martha 
went to Jerusalem, and seeing the great crowd in the 
temple asked what it was, and they told her it was the 
prophet of Galilee. She couldn't get near, but she prob- 
ably stood on the edge of t:he crowd, and listened to 
Christ. Perhaps He preached from the text, " Come 
unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest." "O," says Martha, "that is what I want; I 
have been longing for rest for weeks and months, rest to 
my soul; I never heard any one speak of giving rest be- 
fore," and, although her heart was rilled with bitterness 
and prejudice before, as she stood there and heard those 
beautiful words, she thought, ' ' I would like to hear Him 
again; I wonder if He wouldn't come to my home." 
Then the thought came, if He did, many of my fashion- 
able acquintances in Jerusalem would cut my acquaint- 
ance. Bear in mind, it must have cost Martha a good 
deal to receive Jesus into her home. He was very un- 
popular. But Martha asks Him to go and be her guest; 
and I will say that if you want Jesus to go to your home, 
and help you train those children for eternity, He will 
come there. 

It may be that Mary and Lazarus were both opposed 
to Christ when she asked Him into her home, but He 



564 Moody's sermons. 

hadn't been there a great while before they both were 
taken captive, and we find Christ hereafter going often 
to Bethany, where there was always a welcome for Him, 
where Mary sat at His feet and Martha was glad to serve. 
Tell me that they were not pleasant hours, filled with 
joy and gladness for those two sisters! And I can im- 
agine one day when Lazarus comes in with his hand on 
his head; he has a headache, feels feverish. It may be 
only a few months before that the father and mother had 
died with some fever, and now Lazarus is coming down 
with the same disease. They perhaps send over to Jeru- 
salem to the leading physician there; everything is done 
that can be done to break up the fever, but he grows 
worse, until at last the fatal hour comes. Some of you 
know what it is to have the doctor come out from the 
sick-room and tell you there is no hope, and the loved 
one must go, that all that you can do cannot keep. that 
loved one. Now, that storm was going to burst upon 
that home, and I want to say to every woman in this 
audience that the hour is coming when you will surely 
need Christ. Christ would never have left heaven to 
come down into this world, if this world hadn't needed 
Him. 

Martha and Mary feel their need of Christ, and send a 
servant for Him; Christ could heal their diseased, suffer- 
ing brother. But the brother grows worse rapidly, and it 
is not long before he is dead. They keep him as long as 
they could, but they couldn't keep him long in that hot 
country, and the hour came when they had to take their 
last look upon his face and follow him to the little ceme- 
tery, and it was all over, arid they came back to their 
dark home again. Some of you, mothers, sisters, wives, 
know what I am talking about. 



"NO ROOM FOR CHRIST." 565 

Three days have gone, and the messenger sent for 
Christ has not returned, but the fourth day, along toward 
four o'clock in the afternoon, a messenger comes running 
into the house and tells Martha, who may have been pre- 
paring the evening meal, that Jesus was just outside the 
walls. She doesn't wait for anything, but runs out to 
meet Him and falls at His feet, and says, "Lord, hadst 
Thou been here my brother had not died." Jesus says, 
" But thy brother shall rise again." " I know that he 
will rise at the resurrection of the just, but he was such 
a good brother." "I am the resurrection and the life, 
he that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall 
he live." Martha was the first one to hear those words. 
Then He says, "Where is Mary?" And then she ran 
back into the house and said, " Come, Mary, the Master 
is here, and calleth for you. " The moment Mary heard, 
she rose and left those friends who didn't believe in Him, 
and ran out to meet Christ. And it is evident that these 
sisters had talked it all over, for Mary said the same 
words that Martha had said. ' ' Yes, but thy brother 
shall rise again." " I know he shall rise at the resur- 
rection of the just." " I am the resurrection and the life." 
He said, " Where have you laid him?" and Jesus wept. 
I want a Christ that can go to the grave with me and 
weep when I weep. I want one that can warm this heart 
of mine in the time of trouble, and I am so thankful that 
He wept. Then He told the disciples to take away the 
stone; the sisters couldn't bear that their brother who had 
been so beautiful should be looked upon again, and they 
said, " But by this time he stinketh, Lord, for he hath 
been dead four days." But Jesus said to them, " Said 
I not to thee that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst 



566 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

see the glory of God?" and He called him by name, 
''Lazarus, come forth!" and he came forth. What a 
scene that was! I want to ask this question: Did 
Martha make a mistake in receiving Christ into her home? 
Did Mar}' make a mistake in taking her place at His feet, 
and learning of Him? I want to say to you women here 
that the time is coming when you and I will need Him. 
My friends, make room in your hearts for him. When He 
went up on high, He told us that He went up there to 
make room for us. Let us make room for Him down 
here. We cannot take Him in as Martha and Mary did, 
but we can take Him into our hearts. In these days, 
when many are talking so bitterly against Christ, won't 
you take your stand for Him? I believe He stands 
knocking at the door of your hearts to-day. Just make 
up your minds to make room for Him, and say, "I will." 




Christ in the; Synagogue. Matthew, xiii, 54. 



HOW TO BE SAVED. 



I wonder how many of these people here this after- 
noon would like to be saved? I am not going to ask 
those who would rise. I do not know whether any one 
would have courage enough to rise, and by that act say, 
" I would like to be saved." Perhaps you say to your- 
selves, " If that man will just tell me the way how I can 
be saved this afternoon, I will be saved." I believe one 
reason why so few are saved is because they do not 
come out to the meetings expecting to be saved. They 
do not come for that purpose. There was a lady came 
to our meeting in Philadelphia— to the noon meeting at 
eleven o'clock; she came early so as to get a good seat. 
After the meeting was over we had another meeting for 
women, and she stayed at that. In the afternoon we 
had another meeting, and she stayed at that. She had 
made up her mind not to leave the meetings until she 
had found Christ. She did not find Him at that meet- 
ing, but she might have found Him. He was offered 
freely to every one, at all of them. So she stayed at the 
afternoon meeting, and still no light came. She stayed 
at the evening meeting and went into the inquiry-meet- 
ing afterward. Between eleven and twelve o'clock she 
took me by the hand and said, " I will trust Him." And 

569 



57° MOODY S SERMONS. 

she rejoiced in the Saviors love. I met her afterward. 
There was not a face shone more than hers did. There 
was a woman who came determined to find Him. When 
we search for God with all our hearts, we are sure to find 
Him. 

I am not going to preach so much of a sermon to-day, 
as I am going to try to tell you the way of life. I had 
a long talk with a man yesterday who, I really believe, 
was honestly seeking the kingdom of God; but the 
trouble was, he was determined to try to seek Him in his 
own way, and trying to work the thing out himself, in- 
stead of just trusting to Jesus for it. I hope he is here 
to-night, and that the Lord may bless this little talk to 
his soul, and that he may to-night sleep safely in the 
arms of Jesus Christ. It is supremely important to 
every soul here this day to trust in Christ and be saved. 
I am going to take up a few scriptural illustrations. The 
first is the ark. When I was in Manchester, in one of 
the inquiry-meetings, I went up into the gallery to talk 
with a few men who were standing together, and who 
were inquirers of the way of life. And while they 
were standing in a little group around me, there came up 
another man and got on the outside of the audience, and 
I thought by the expression of his face that he was skep- 
tical. I did not think he had come to find Christ. But 
as I went on talking, I noticed the tears trickling down 
his cheeks. I said, "My friend, are you anxious about 
your soul's salvation?" He said, "Yes, very." I asked 
him what was the trouble, and I kept on talking to that 
one man, thinking that if he could understand me per- 
haps the others would. He said he wanted to feel all 
right about it. I explained to him by means of an illus- 



HOW TO BE SAVED. 571 

tration, and asked him, ''Do you see?" He said, "No." 
I used another, and asked him, " Do you see it yet?" and 
he said, " No," again. I gave still another, and still he 
said he did not see. I then said, (i Was it Noah's feel- 
ing that saved him, or was it his ark? Was what saved 
Noah his righteousness? Was it his life, was it his 
prayers, was it his tears, was it his feelings, or was it 
the ark?" He came immediately and grasped me by the 
hand, and said, "I see it now; it is all right now; I've 
got to go away on the next train, and I'm in a hurry, 
but you have made it plain to me; good-by." And he 
went off. I thought it was so sudden that he could not 
have understood it. But the next Sunday afternoon he 
came and tapped me on the shoulder and smiled, and 
asked me if I remembered him. I said no, that I 
remembered his face, but could not tell who he was or 
where I had seen him before. He said, ' ' Do you 
remember a man that came up into the inquiry-room the 
other day, and you explained to him how it was Noah's 
ark that saved him? I did not see any illustration until 
you used that one, and then I saw it all." I asked him 
how he was, and he said he had been all right ever since, 
and that the ark had saved him. I afterward learned 
that he was one of the best business men of Man- 
chester. His feelings did not save him. The ark saved 
him. 

I want to prove to you that salvation is instantaneous. 
It is just as sudden as a man walking through a doorway. 
One minute he is on this side, the next he is on that side. 
There was one minute when Noah was exposed to the 
wrath that was to come over the whole world; but when 
he went through the doorway of the ark, that moment he 



57 2 MOODY S SERMONS. 

was safe. There are many who are trying to make an 
ark for themselves out of their feelings, out of their own 
good deeds. But God has provided an ark. If Noah 
had had to build himself an ark when the flood came, he 
would have been lost like the rest. A good many of 
those men who perished when that flood came tried to 
make arks for themselves, but they all perished helplessly. 
They tried to make boats and rafts, and tried every way 
they could to save themselves, but they perished because 
they were not in the ark that God had appointed. So 
to-day, every man and every woman must perish that is 
not in the ark which God has appointed for their salva- 
tion. A knowledge about the ark is not going to help 
you. A great many persons flatter themselves they are 
going to be saved because they know a great deal about 
Jesus Christ. But your knowledge of Him will not save 
you. Noah's carpenters probably knew as much about 
the ark as Noah did, and perhaps more. They knew 
that the ark was strong. They knew it was built to 
stand the deluge. They knew it was made to float upon 
the waters. They had helped to build it. But they 
were just as helpless when the flood came as men who 
lived thousands of miles away. Men who lived right in 
sight of the ark, that knew all about it, perished like the 
rest, because they were not in the ark. I know some- 
thing about the different lines of steamers, and I have 
crossed the Atlantic. Here is another man that has 
never heard there was such a line of steamers. We both 
want to go to Europe. My knowledge of a line of 
steamers does not help me a bit if I do not take the 
means to go there. You may hear about Christ, but if 
you do not believe in Christ you cannot be saved. Your 



HOW TO GET SAVED. 573 

knowledge is not going to help you to your salvation. 
What you want to do is just to make Christ your ark, and 
then to step into that ark and be saved. 

I can imagine you saying, " I do not see how a person 
can be saved all at once." So many persons think they 
have to work themselves out gradually, that they have to 
do a little here, a little there, and after they have toiled 
and worked, and have considered the matter prayerfully 
for some time, they will be more acceptable. The Israel- 
ites were told to sprinkle blood upon the door-posts, that 
the angel might not enter the houses where the blood 
was to be seen. There was one moment when they had 
not sprinkled the blood on their door-posts, and when 
they were exposed to the blight of the destroying angel; 
and there was another moment when the blood had been 
sprinkled there, and they were safe. There is a legend 
told about this which illustrates it very well. It is about 
a little girl who was the first-born, and consequently who 
would have been a victim on that night if the protecting 
blood were not sprinkled on the door-posts of her father's 
house. The order was that the first-born was to be 
struck by death all through Egypt. This little girl was 
sick, and she knew that death would take her, and she might 
be a victim of the order. She asked her father if the blood 
was sprinkled on the door-posts. He said it was, that he 
had ordered it to be done. She asked him if he had seen it 
there. He said no, but he had no doubt that it was done. 
He had seen the lamb killed, and had told a servant to 
attend to it. But she was not satisfied, and asked her 
father to go and see, and urged hirn to take her in his 
arms and carry her to the door to see. They found that 



574 Moody's sermons. 

the servant had neglected to put the blood upon the posts. 
There the child was exposed until they found the blood 
and put it upon the door-posts, and when she saw it she 
was satisfied. That was all the assurance that she 
needed. So a great many are saying, " Do you feel this 
and that? Do you feel, do you feel, do you feel?" God 
does not tell you to feel. He tells you to believe. He 
says, "When I see the blood, I will pass over," and if 
you are sheltered behind the blood, you are perfectly safe 
and secure. Suppose I say to a man, " Do you feel that 
you own this piece of land?" He looks at me a moment 
and thinks I must be crazy. He says, " Feel? Why 
feeling has nothing to do with it. I look at the title. 
That is all I want." So you see, all you have to do is 
with the title. A great many are all the time saying, 
"Do you feel that you are safe?" But to all God says, 
" He that believeth in the Lord hath everlasting life.' 
Not " will have," it is the present tense, hath it to-day, 
hath it this very hour. If the devil can make you believe 
you will be saved some time, and keep you from believing 
now and receiving now, that is all he wants. He knows 
that to-morrow will never come, and he puts it off from 
day to day, from month to month, and from year to year. 
My friends, Jesus Christ will never be more willing to 
save you than He is to-night, and the longer you put it 
off, the longer you wait, the further you are going from 
Him. Every day you put it off you are going back from 
God, and are making it harder for you to be saved. 

My next illustration is the serpent upon the pole. You 
sang a song to-night about it, "It is life just to look at 
the Crucified One. " It is not to work that we are told. 
It is just to look. How simple! You know a fiery ser- 



HOW TO BE SAVED. . 575 

pent had gone through Israel and bitten many people, 
and they died. And the Israelites went to Moses and 
said, "Entreat the Lord to take away this serpent.'' 
They did not ask for a remedy; they did not ask for the 
bitten ones to be allowed to recover. They could hear 
the groans of the dying all around. But God more than 
granted their prayers. God always gives us more than 
we ask for. He not only took away the serpent, but He 
said to Moses, "Make a brass serpent and put it on a 
pole and lift it on high, so that all who are bitten shall 
look and live. And it shall come to pass that when they 
look, they shall not die, but live." How simple! A little 
child can look. It is so simple that the learned and the 
unlearned can look. You do not have to go to college to 
learn how to look. You do not have to pass through a 
university to learn how to look. That little child there 
is not more than three or four years old, but it under- 
stands how to look. If a mother wants her little child 
to look, she simply says, " Look, my child," and that is 
enough. So all that the bitten Israelites had to do was 
to look and live; and the very moment they looked, they 
were saved instantaneously. It was as sudden as a flash 
of lightning. So many people say, " I do not understand 
how it is so many people can be saved all at once." 
Well, that is Jesus' way, and that is all there is about it. 
"God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and God's ways 
are not our ways." If we had been going to save the 
world, we would have gone about it in a different way 
from God's way, I have no doubt. If we had been going 
to save the bitten Israelites, the last way we would prob- 
ably have thought of would have been to make a brass 
serpent and put it upon a pole. But God works as_ He 



576 Moody's sermons. 

pleases, and we must learn that His ways are His own 
and must prevail; and we must listen to Him, and if He 
says we will be saved at once, and that salvation is in- 
stantaneous, all we have to do is to submit and believe. 
Instead of looking at yourself, at your own sin, instead 
of looking at your past life, what you should do is just 
to take your eyes off of yourself and look at Christ. 

Now, come back again to another Bible illustration. 
You know when the children of Israel came from the land 
of slavery and had the visitation of the fiery serpents, 
and after Moses had been commanded to raise the brazen 
serpent, he went to Pisgah and died, and Joshua led 
them into the Promised Land. Joshua then received a 
command from God that he should erect six cities, three 
on each side of the Jordan, which were to be cities of 
refuge. These places were to be put far enough apart so 
as to cover the whole land, that any man, no matter 
where he might be when he should have occasion to seek 
them, could easily gain access to one of them. The gates 
of these cities were to be kept open day and night, and 
the chief men of each city — the magistrates — were to 
keep the ways to these places free of all obstacles and 
stumbling-blocks, so that no one should be hindered in 
getting within the walls. And not only should the roads 
be kept smooth and well in repair, but- all the bridges 
leading over streams and rivers should be kept up and in 
good condition, and signposts were also to be placed at 
intervals along the road, showing the fugitive that he was 
on the right way, to keep him from straying. And to 
provide for the contingency of the man who was fleeing 
not being able to read, there was a red finger put on the 



HOW TO BE SAVED. 577 

posts, which pointed the way. Thus a man, even if he 
could read, was not compelled to stop and thus lose time; 
he saw the sign and sped on. The cfti-es were also placed 
on hills, that every one could see them. The cities were 
erected for this purpose. It was considered a great dis- 
honor among the Israelites if, when a man was killed, 
the nearest relation of him did not at once arm himself, 
seek out the slayer and kill him. Thus a man had no 
hope, if he had accidentally killed one, of saving his own 
life from the avenging hand of the brother or other rela- 
tive, but to get within the walls of the nearest city of 
refuge; for it was the law that the moment he escaped 
that far, the relation of the slain man could not touch 
him. Now for my illustration: Suppose I had killed a 
man unwittingly; that he and I had been out chopping 
in the woods, and suppose my ax had slipped out of my 
hand and had crushed in the skull of my companion. 
My only hope would be to get to one of these cities; my 
only hope was to escape for my life. I should have had 
no time to loiter, no time to hesitate or argue, no time to 
consider. I should have to start at once. The brother 
of my companion who^ had been killed, though thus 
purely through accident, was near, and he was so in- 
censed, or perhaps had some old score to pay off, that I 
should have no chance to stay and plead with him. He 
had made up his mind to kill me, and there was nothing 
left for me to do but fly. I know the young man's hot 
temper, and I see him on my track. I therefore spring 
out of the bush into the road, and it now becomes a life 
and death struggle. I see the city before me. Along 
the road I speed to the full extent of my strength. Down 
the hill I go as fast as I can; up the ravine I make my 



578 Moody's sermons. 

way; men see me coming; they do not check me, or 
throw any obstacles in my path; they get out of my way, 
and as I pass they wish me " God-speed," and warn me 
that the avenger is not far behind. Now I am in full 
view of the city; the gates are wide open; I know I shall 
not have to stop and knock when I get up to them. 
When I get closer, I see the citizens are on the walls. 
The information has reached them that a poor refugee is 
coming. Some of them have had to flee themselves, 
and they sympathize with me. They thus await me; 
but they see I am hard pressed. I am almost on the 
point of giving out. But I say to myself, "Courage! 
Another effort and I shall reach the gates and be safe." 
O, if I can only reach the city? Ah, my friends, just 
look at the city; don't let anything take your attention 
away. Look! look! see what I have to do. If I stop, 
loiter, or linger, I am lost. The avenger will soon be on 
me. 1 can almost hear him breathing behind me. I 
know his sword is ready to hew me down. I get nearer 
to the walls now. I see the people plainly; they beckon 
on with their hands. I strain every nerve. "Hurry, 
hurry, he is almost upon you! O, he will be killed." I 
bring every muscle into play. The people crowd around 
the gate to receive me. "Now, now," they cry. I make 
one more bound; I pass them; I am safe. That is in- 
stantaneous, isn't it? One minute I am under the 
avenging sword ready to fall upon my head; the next 
minute I am perfectly secure. The avenger cannot enter. 
The officers see to that; they will not let him come in 
with his sword. Can you, my friends, have a better 
illustration of this life? Don't you know that death is on 
your track now, and is ready to have you a victim? 



HOW TO BE SAVED. 579 

Don't you know that he may be only a few years, a few 
months, a few weeks, a few days, or even a few moments 
only, from you? Even this very afternoon he may catch 
up to you. You may think him miles and miles behind 
you, years and years away, but just as surely as you live, 
here he is only a little way behind you now — a great deal 
nearer than you imagine. Haste, then, to a place of 
refuge. If you are outside the city, you perish; if you 
come within the walls of salvation, you live secure. God 
has a city of refuge for you. He shows you by every 
unmistakable sign where it is, and He gives you warning 
that if you do not reach its walls you die. Come, then. 
If you neglect these mercies how do you expect to save 
your life? How can you loiter and linger when death is 
bearing down upon you? A little while, and you will be 
lost; but if you make for the salvation offered to you, 
you will be safe in Christ, and you can look back and 
challenge death to his face. You can say in triumph, 
"Death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy 
victory. " 



SOWING AND REAPING. 



You will find my text this evening in the sixth chapter 
of Galatians, seventh, eighth, and ninth verses: "Be not 
deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to 
his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that 
soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlast- 
ing. And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due 
season we shall reap, if we faint not." You who were 
here last Wednesday night remember that we had for our 
text, "Their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies 
themselves being judges," and then we tried to find a 
text which every one would admit was true. I think 
that we have one to-night that no infidel, no skeptic or 
deist can attack. There are some passages which we do 
not have to prove by the word of God, but merely by 
our own experience. Your own lives will prove many 
passages in Scripture. You can take up the daily papers 
and see them fulfilled under your own eyes. This is one 
of them. Perhaps there has not been a text of Scripture 
run out in this tabernacle as this one has. Night after 
night we have said something about it; night after night 
Mr. Sankey has sung out, "Whatsoever a man soweth 

580 




The Disciples Plucking Corn on the Sabbath. Mark, ii, 23-28. 



SOWING AND REAPING. 583 

that shall he also reap." My friends, we cannot quote 
it too often. We want to quote it, and preach it till it 
gets down to the hearts of the people. Now, it is very 
natural to be deceived. I suppose there is not a man or 
woman here but who has been deceived by his or her 
most intimate friends. You have been deceived by your 
own friends, and you have been deceived by your ene- 
mies, and how many could rise up here and say they 
have not been deceived by themselves? How many of 
us have found our own heart more treacherous than any- 
thing else? How many of us have not found the truth 
of that passage, "The heart of man is deceitful above 
all things, and desperately wicked"? We can be deceit- 
ful to each other, to our friends and to ourselves, but 
bear in mind we cannot deceive God. How often does 
man find that Satan has deceived him? But has he ever 
found God deceiving him? I have never found a man 
who has said that he has been, or that he has heard of 
anybody whom God has deceived. How many times has 
a man said he has been deceived by his fellows, by his 
own treacherous heart? And our experience in thii direc- 
tion only shows that we cannot rely upon man, upon 
ourselves, but only upon God. 

Now, it is a law of nature that if a man sows he will 
reap what he sows. If a man sows watermelons, he 
don't look for cauliflowers; if a man sows potatoes, he 
don't look for cabbages; if he sows onions, he don't look 
for corn. If he plants potatoes, he expects potatoes; if 
he sows corn, he looks for corn; or wheat, he expects to 
reap wheat. So, in the natural world, a man expects to 
reap what he sows. If a man learns a carpenter's or a 
builder's trade, he expects to put up buildings for a living. 



584 Moody's sermons. 

If a man toils and studies hard for a profession, if he is 
a lawyer, he expects to practice law. He don't expect 
to have to preach the gospel for a living. He has been 
sowing for years, and he expects to reap. As a man 
sows, so he expects to reap. This is the law in the 
natural world, and so it is with the spiritual. "Blessed 
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." 
" Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called 
the children of God." " Blessed are they which hunger 
and thirst for righteousness' sake." Why? Because they 
shall get rich? No; "for they shall be filled." Now, 
you will see that a certain result is the product of certain 
conditions. This is the law which you will find carried 
out all through the world, in natural and spiritual things. 
If a man is a thief, you expect to see him come to an 
ignominious end. If a man is drunken and dissipated, 
we look, as a natural consequence of his dissipation, to 
see him go to ruin. Yet men themselves don't see this; 
their eyes are closed to their folly. A friend who was 
coming down with me to-night said, " When I lookback, 
I see that I started wrong when I came here. It seems 
as if I must have been blind. I did not see this till 
within the last two or three weeks. " My friends, that's 
what Satan does with a man. He just blinds him, and 
when he has got a man blinded, he does anything he 
wants with him. It is very hard to make men under- 
stand this simple truth, that they will have to reap what 
they sow, especially young men from seventeen to twenty- 
one. That, you know, is the ugly age. There is more 
trouble with them then than at any other stage. I re- 
member when I was at that age. I knew a good deal 
more than my mother or any of my friends. You take a 



SOWING AND REAPING. 585 

young man at that age, and you'll find he knows a great 
deal more than his father, his grandfather, or even his 
great-grandfather, all put together. "He is wise in his 
own conceit." It is during that ugly age that characters 
are forming for good or evil; and bear in mind, you 
young men, that "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall 
he also reap." If a man sows tares, he has got to reap 
them. It may not be to-morrow, or next week, or next 
year, but the time of reaping will assuredly come, and 
when the reaping-time comes you will moan bitterly; 
then you will like to change places with those Christians 
whom you now despise. When the reaping-time comes 
you would give a good deal if you could exchange places 
with the humblest-looking Christian. I suppose that 
Cain would give a good deal to exchange places with 
Abel to-night. Do you think Pilate would not like to 
change places with Elijah, with Obadiah, or Peter, to- 
night? Don't you think the Emperor Nero would like to 
exchange places now with Paul? Paul is reaping what 
he sowed, and so is Nero. All through Scripture you can 
see proof of this text. Don't you think that the rich man 
at whose door the beggar Lazarus lay would like to 
exchange places with that poor Christian now? Bear in 
mind that you may look upon Christians with contempt, 
but the time is coming when you will give anything to 
exchange places with the meanest Christian that walks 
the streets. 

I used to believe twenty years ago in this text, but I 
believe it more now than ever I did. The longer I live, 
the more I become convinced of its awful truth. You 
know I used to live in Chicago, and I used to go from 
house to house among the poor, and in going among the 



586 Moody's sermons. 

poor I gained no little experience of the rich people. In 
visiting the poor I became acquainted with a good many 
rich families, and there is scarcely a week passes now but 
I hear of rich families who have gone down to ruin. Just 
this afternoon I heard of a family who, twenty years ago, 
occupied a position among the best. They had a beauti- 
ful daughter, who could have adorned any station, and a 
lovely home, and I heard to-day that they had gone down 
to ruin. They looked upon Christianity with scorn and 
contempt. The father brought the children up to treat 
all religion with contempt, and his sons have gone down 
to their graves drunkards, and his daughter has died of a 
broken heart. Yes, a man who sows tares must reap 
them, and sometimes the harvest is a whirlwind. 

Now, just let us divide that text up; not that I want 
to preach under different heads, but just for the sake of 
greater clearness. When a man sows he expects to reap. 
This truth must be admitted first. A farmer that planted 
grain and never reaped his fields, you would say had gone 
clear mad. No man sows that doesn't expect to reap. 
That is just what he does expect to do. The next point: 
A man always expects to reap more than he sowed. If 
he sows a handful of grain, he expects to get from that 
handful a bushel, and if he sows a bushel he expects a 
harvest of five hundred bushels. And just so it is in 
spiritual matters. If a man scatters handfuls of tares in 
spiritual things, his spiritual harvest will be bushels of 
tares, and not wheat. Whatever he sows he shall reap; 
just that and nothing more, and if he sows the wind he 
must reap the whirlwind. A man must expect a harvest 
of just the kind that his seed is; and this great law is even 
more true of spiritual growth than of natural growth. If 



SOWING AND REAPING. 587 

a man is bad and corrupt in his thoughts, you can tell 
precisely what his deeds will be. 

If a man is profane and blasphemous, look to his chil- 
dren to be the same; if a father is a lying man, his chil- 
dren will grow up to deceive him just as he deceived 
others. A bad boy is too often the living penalty of the 
sins of his parents; they have sown and watered, and 
now he is reaping the punishment. Another point, if a 
man sows, he must reap the fruit, no matter how 
ignorant he may claim to be, or really be, of the nature 
of the seed. A plea of ignorance won't do. You sow 
tares and think it wheat, but nothing but tares will 
spring up. You may call it wheat, or rye, or grain, or 
whatever name you please, but you get nothing but 
weeds and tares. You must look to what kind of seed 
you are sowing, for neither ignorance nor any other ex- 
cuse can make tares bring forth wheat. And now, see 
how true that is, in regard not only to individuals but 
nations. Nations are only collections of individuals, and 
what is true of the part in regard to character is always 
true of the whole. In this country our forefathers 
planted slavery in the face of an open Bible, and didn't 
we have to reap? When the harvest came, nearly half a 
million of your young men were buried, many of them in 
nameless graves. Didn't God make this nation weep in 
the hour of gathering the harvest, when we had to give 
up our young men, both north and south, to death; and 
every household almost had an empty chair, and blood, 
blood, blood, flowed like water for four long years? Ah, 
our nation sowed, and how in tears and groans she had 
to reap! 

Then look at that king in Egypt. He made a decree 



588 Moody's sermons. 

that all the male infants should be put to death, and to 
death they were put, with all the horrors that hatred and 
jealousy could invent. It was terrible. Well, now, I 
suppose some people think it strange that God didn't 
punish Egypt with swift destruction. But look, the pun- 
ishment only tarried. The mill grinds slow, but it grinds 
exceedingly small; in eighty years cast your eye on that 
miserable land. God's vengeance at length came down, 
and ruin along with it. In every house in Egypt the first 
born was slain, from the palace to the lowest hovel. 
There still lived a God, and this immutable law of His 
had still to be executed; they had to reap just what they 
had sown. Then, sometimes the mill is not so slow. 
Sometimes the punishment comes rapidly, like lightning. 
No sooner did the voice ascend that Cain had killed his 
brother, than God came down and put a mark upon his 
forehead. Scarcely had Judas betrayed his Master than 
he came back with his thirty pieces of silver, and, torn 
with remorse, threw them down before the priests, and 
went out and hung himself. You will find that very 
often judgment and destruction come very sudden, come 
like a flash from the throne of God. I remember, in the 
north of England, a prominent citizen told me a sad case 
that happened there in the town of Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
It was about a young boy. He was very young, and he 
said he was too young to go to a Sunday-school. He 
was an only child. The father and mother thought 
everything of him, and did all they could for him. But 
he fell into bad ways; he took up with evil characters 
and finally got to running with thieves. He didn't let 
his parents know about it. One night they got him to 
break into a saloon, what the people there call a public 



SOWING AND REAPING. 589 

house. They stood outside while he entered the house 
and broke into the till. He was caught, and in one short 
week he was tried, convicted, and sent for ten years to 
Van Dieman's Land. His term of servitude expired, 
and he returned to his native land. He came to the 
town where his mother and father used to live, and soon 
stood at the door of his old home. He had been gone 
ten years, and what a change he found there! My 
friends, ten years seem a short time, but look back over 
the period of ten years in your lives, and see how many 
changes have taken place. He went to his old home and 
knocked, but a stranger came to the door and stared him 
in the face. " No, there's no such person lives here, and 
where your parents are I don't know," was the only wel- 
come he received. Then he turned through the gate, 
and went down the street, asking even the children that 
he met about his folks, where they were living, and if 
they were well. But everybody looked blank. Ten years 
had rolled by, and though that seemed perhaps a short 
time, how many changes had taken place! There where 
he was born and brought up, he was now an alien, and 
unknown even in his old haunts. But at last he found a 
couple of townsmen that remembered his father and 
mother, and they told him the old house had been de- 
serted long years ago; that he had been gone but a few 
months before his father w r as confined to his house, and 
very soon died broken-hearted; and that his mother had 
gone out of her mind. He went to the mad-house where 
his mother was, and went up to her and said, " Mother, 
mother, don't you know me? I am your son!" But she 
raved, and slapped him on the face, and shrieked, " You 
are not my boy!" and then raved again and tore her hair. 



590 MOODY S SERMONS. 

He left the asylum more dead than alive, so completely 
broken-hearted that he died in a few months. Yes, the 
fruit was long growing, but at last it ripened to the har- 
vest like a whirlwind, and vengeance made quick work of 
it. The death harvest was reaped. 

But bear in mind what I have said to-night, and be 
not doubters, even if the harvest is slow. Let me read 
you the passage, "Because sentence against their evil 
deeds is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of 
the sons of men are fully set in to do them evil. Though 
a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be pro- 
longed, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them 
that fear God, which fear before Him, but it shall not 
be well with the wicked, neither shall He prolong His 
days, which are a shadow, because he feareth not before 
God." 

My friends, if you sow in the flesh you will reap disap- 
pointment; you will reap gloom, despair and remorse; 
the harvest will be death and hell; that will be the end; 
but if you sow of the Spirit, you will reap peace, joy, 
happiness, life everlasting; for God has said it. There 
are a great many things in this world that we are not- 
sure of; we are sure of nothing, I may say. I am not 
sure that I will finish this sermon; I am not sure that I 
may go home to-night; we cannot say, positively, that 
the sun will rise to-morrow morning. Yes, my friends, 
there are a great many things that we are not sure of; 
but there is one thing that we are sure of, for God has 
said it. You can be sure that your sins will find you out. 
If we don't judge ourselves and confess our sins, they will 
find us out. " He that covereth his sins shall not pros- 
per;" that is God's decree. 



SOWING AND REAPING. 591 

Now, I have been censured by many for advising two 
men who had committed crime to go back and confess 
their sin. One man the other day was cursing me for 
doing so. " A pretty kind of religion this is," he said; 
but, my friends, if a man has gone into a court and pub- 
licly perjured himself, he cannot serve God till he pub- 
licly confesses it. If he has sinned in public,' he must 
confess his sin in public. These men have gone back 
and written letters full of encouragement. One of them 
says, "Perhaps I will go to the penitentiary for three 
years, but what is that in comparison to the burden I 
would have carried had I not confessed?" Now, bear in 
mind that if you cover your sin, you shall not prosper; 
you may keep it secret, but it will eventually come out, 
Look at the sons of Jacob! Look at them when they 
took away their brother, and after they had delivered 
him into slavery; see them coming back. How much 
they must have suffered with their secret during those 
twenty years! What misery they must have endured as 
they looked during all those years at their old father sor- 
rowing for his son Joseph! They knew the boy had not 
been killed; they knew he was in slavery. For twenty 
years the sin was covered up, but at last it came back 
upon them. God had in the mean time been doing 
everything for Joseph; he had raised him nearly to the 
throne of Egypt. A famine struck the land of the father, 
and the old man sent his sons down to Egypt to get corn. 
God was at work. He was making these men bring 
their own sin home to themselves. Their conscience 
smote them, and they confessed in the presence of Joseph 
that their sin had found them out. Twenty years after 
it was committed, that sin was resurrected, and with it 



592 MOODY S SERMONS. 

they were brought face to face. My friends, be sure at 
once that your sin will find you out. God has said it, 
and if He says a thing He means it. "He that covereth 
his sins shall not prosper." I can imagine some one say- 
ing to Absalom when he started out to fight his father, 
" You shouldn't do this; you are committing a sin, and 
it will find you out. I can see that young friend looking 
down upon that man with scorn and contempt. The 
idea of his sins ever finding him out, ever coming back 
upon him! He probably would have said, "That man's 
talking for effect, " like a good many say of me. You 
will hear some people say, "Well, now, any man who 
knows anything about education knows well enough that 
Moody is only preaching for effect." If a man tells me I 
am preaching for effect, I say, "Amen! Amen!" That's 
what I am trying to do; what does a man preach for if it 
is not for effect? I am trying to create an effect and so 
wake you up to your condition, and if you don't wake up, 
the reaping-time will come upon you, the whirlwind of 
troubles and sorrows will rush over your defenseless head, 
and then you will reap what you have sown in years 
gone by. 

But let me say that if you are willing to confess your 
sins — I don't care what the sin may be — God is willing 
and ready to take it away. As I have said, there has 
been a great deal of talk about my interfering with those 
prisoners lately. Some one has said in speaking about 
that man in Ohio, " Well, that is a queer kind of Chris- 
tianity, to send a man away back to the penitentiary to 
suffer!" Let me say here that that young man has said 
in his last letter, "I think I am happier than you are, 
Mr. Moody; God is helping me to bear the burden; God 



SOWING AND REAPING. 593 

is answering my prayers." My friends, it was a great deal 
better for that man to confess his crime, than to try to 
hide it away. If a man commits a crime he should suffer 
the penalty. I must suffer the penalty if I break my arm 
in fighting. The man with whom I fought may forgive 
me for fighting with him, but I have to suffer all the same 
with my arm. A man got into a quarrel and got crippled, 
and some time ago he became converted, but although 
God has forgiven him his sin, he has to remain a cripple 
all his life. So a man must reap what he sows. I heard 
of an illustration that just helps me out here. Suppose 
I have a field, and I say to a man, "I want you to sow 
that field with wheat." The man has become very angry, 
all out of sorts with me, and when he sows that wheat, 
he puts in a lot oftares. When the wheat has come up, 
I see among it a great many tares. I say to him, " Did 
you sow these tares?" " Well," he says, " I will confess; 
yes, sir, I did it; I sowed these tares; I will confess it 
instead of covering it up; but, sir, I am very sorry;" and 
I forgive him. But when the wheat has to be harvested, 
I make the man reap the tares also. 

You know how David fell. No man rose so high and 
fell so far, I think. God took him from the sheepfold 
and put him upon a throne. He took him from obscurity 
and made him king of Israel and Judea; gave him lands 
in abundance, and would have given him more if he had 
wanted them. He was on the pinnacle of glory, and hon- 
ored among men. But one day, while looking out of a 
window, he saw a woman with whom he became 
enamored. He yielded to the temptation, and ordered 
her to be brought into the palace, and committed the 
terrible sin of adultery. After that, as is the case with 



594 Moody's sermons. 

all men who commit a sin, he had to commit another to 
cover it up, so he laid plans to kill her husband, and 
ordered him to be put in a position in the ranks of his 
army so that he could be killed. Months rolled away, 
and one day Nathan came into the palace of the king. I 
can imagine that David was glad to see him. Nathan 
began to tell him about two men who dwelt in a certain 
city. The one was rich, the other poor; one had herds 
and flocks, and the other had only a little ewe lamb, and 
he went on to tell how this rich man seized this ewe 
lamb, all that the poor man had, and slew it. I can see 
the anger of David as it flashed from his eye when he 
heard the story, and he cried, " As the Lord liveth, the 
man that hath done this thing shall surely die." He 
turned to Nathan, and in tones of thunder demanded who 
the man was. "Thou art the man," was the reply of 
Nathan. David had convicted himself. " The man who 
did this thing shall die." Then the Lord said, "I will 
raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, because 
thou hast kept this thing secret." Soon after, the hand 
of death was put upon that house; not only did death 
enter his house; but it wasn't long before his eldest son 
committed adultery with his sister, and another com- 
mitted murder, murdered his own brothers, and went off 
into a foreign land an exile. Then he got up a rebellion 
and drove the king from the throne, and at last died and 
was buried like a dog, and they heaped stones upon his 
resting-place. " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
he also reap." David committed adultery, so did his son; 
David committed murder, his son did the same. He was 
paid back in his own coin. He learned the truth of this 
passage, " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 



SOWING AND REAPING. 595 

reap." Why, I hear things every day in this city that 
make my ears tingle. I heard of three cases within the 
last six hours where men who have gone to the altar and 
sworn before God to love, cherish, and protect the women 
who became their wives — who have become, some of 
them, mothers of children — and, because these men have 
seen other women they liked better, they have cast off 
these women whom they have sworn before God to love. 
Do you think there is a God in heaven? Do you think 
that God is not going to punish these men? They may 
go on in their career, punishment may not come for a 
little while, but the wheels of judgment are going on, and 
retribution will come. Some of these heart-broken wives 
say it is hard. Wait a little while. His eyes cover all 
the earth, and man cannot deceive Him. He has said, 
" Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
High heaven has decreed it, and I beg of you, if you have 
committed this sin, go and cry to God for mercy. Go, 
confess it; don't try to cover it up. Let every sin be 
brought out; if you don't, your own conscience will turn 
against you by-and-by. 

When I was in London I went into a wax-work there 
— Mme. Tussaud's — and I went into the chamber of hor- 
rors. There were wax figures of all kinds of murderers 
in that room. There was Booth, who killed Lincoln, 
and many of that class; but there was one figure that I 
got interested in, who killed his wife because he loved 
another woman, and the law didn't find him out. He 
married this woman and had a family of seven children, 
and twenty years passed away. Then his conscience be- 
gan to trouble him. He had no rest; he could hear his 
murdered wife pleading continually for her life. His 



596 Moody's sermons. 

friends began to think he was going out of his mind; he 
became haggard, and his conscience haunted him, till at 
last he went to the officers of the law and told them that 
he was guilty of murder. He wanted to die, life was so 
much of an agony to him. His conscience turned against 
him. My friends, if you have done wrong, may your 
conscience be woke up, and may you testify against your- 
self. It is a great deal better to judge our own acts and 
confess them, than go through the world with a curse 
upon you. And if you to-night will judge your own sin 
and confess it, He is faithful to forgive. He will forgive 
every sinner here if you but come to Him in faith, and 
will blot out all your iniquities. 

I was telling of a young man who spoke up in the asso- 
ciation one night. He got up at the close of the meeting 
and said, "Mr. Moody, may I say a few words?" Well, 
I thought I wouldn't, but then I thought perhaps he has 
a message from God, and I told him to speak. He went 
on and urged these young men to accept salvation. " If 
you have friends praying for you, if you have mothers 
praying for you, treat them kindly, for you will not al- 
ways have them with you." Then he went on to tell how 
he had once a father and a mother who loved him dearly, 
and who prayed continually for him. He was an only 
child. His father died, and after the burial his mother 
became more anxious than ever for his salvation. Some- 
times she would come to him and put her arms around 
his neck and say with kindness, " O my boy, I would be 
so happy if you would only be a Christian, and could 
pray with me." He would push her away. "No, 
mother; I'm not going to become a Christian yet; I am 
going to wait a little longer and see the world. " He would 



SOWING AND REAPING. 597 

try to banish the subject from his mind altogether. 
Sometimes he would wake up at the midnight hour, and 
would hear the voice of that mother raised in supplica- 
tion for her boy, "O God, save my boy; have mercy 
upon him." At last, this is the way he put it, " It got 
too hot for him." He saw he had either to become a 
Christian or run away. And away he ran, and became 
a prodigal and a wanderer. He heard from her indirectly; 
he couldmot let his mother know where he was, because 
he knew she would have gone to the end of the world to 
find him. One day he got word that his mother was 
very sick. He began to think, " Suppose mother should 
die, I would never forgive myself," and he said, " I will 
go home," but then he thought, "Well, if I go home, 
she will be praying at me again, and I can't stay under 
her roof and listen to her prayers," and his proud, stub- 
born heart would not let him go. Months went on, and 
again he heard indirectly that his mother was very sick. 
His conscience began to trouble him. He knew he would 
never forgive himself if he didn't go home, and he finally 
determined. There were no railroads, and he had to go 
in a stage-coach. At night he got into the town. The 
moon was shining, and he could see the little village 
before him. The mother's home was about a mile from 
where he landed, and on his way he had to pass the vil- 
lage grocery, and as he went along he thought he would 
pass through the graveyard and see his father's grave. 
"What," he thought, "if my mother has been laid 
there!" When he got up to the grave he saw by the light 
of the moon a new-made grave. He felt the turf, and 
the earth was fresh and soft. He knew who had been 
laid there, and for once in his life the thought flashed 



598 Moody's sermons. 

upon him, " Who will pray now for my lost soul? My 
mother and father lie there, and they are the only ones 
who ever prayed for me. " "Young men," said he, "I 
spent that night at my mothers grave, and before the sun 
rose, my mother's God had become my God. But I can 
never forgive myself for murdering my mother, although 
Christ has forgiven me." My friends, that poor fellow 
had to reap what he had sowed. 

I may be speaking to-night to some young man whose 
mother perhaps just now is in her closet, wrestling in 
prayer for you. Bless God, boy, for that mother. Do 
not treat that mother contemptuously; do rrpi deny her 
prayer to-night; do not make light of your mother's cries 
to God this night. God's best gift on earth to you is that 
praying mother. She is your dearest, most unselfish 
friend in all the world. Will you not heed her pleading 
prayer? Come out like a man; come to your mother's 
Savior, and take Him to be your God. May the God 
of heaven convict you of sin, and draw you to 
Himself, and this will be the best night you've had upon 
earth. 

How many are there in this room to-night who have 
moral courage to stand up right in this tabernacle and 
say, "Pray for me"? How many in this room to-night 
would like to become Christians? How many are there 
in this room now who would like to have prayer for them, 
beseeching prayer, that God will save them? I am going 
to lead in prayer, and as many as would like to have 
prayer, personal prayer, to God, will just rise. You can 
just stand right up one after another. Never mind if 
there is but one of you; just remain standing. There's 
another who's got moral courage to rise to-night. Just 



SOWING AND REAPING. 599 

stand up, will you, and remain so while others join you. 
There, there, friends, don't get up as if you were ashamed 
or scared; rise up and show me and God that you are in 
earnest. I would like to see every man out of Christ 
rising right up here. There's another in the gallery, and 
another; well, keep rising; I would sit here all night and 
see you rise up in the galleries there and everywhere. 
Every man and woman in this assembly, every boy, who 
would like to be a Christian, will you just rise now, all 
of you? 

LofC. 



HOW TO CONVERT INFIDELS. 



It is a great thing to acquire an appetite for the word 
of God. If we can get a love for the word, we will get 
something that will last. J would like to find the first 
Christian feeding upon the word of God without grow- 
ing. A great many Christians wonder why they don't 
grow. It's because they are not feeding. A good many 
souls are all dried up, all withered up, because they 
haven't been fed. I think David had this idea when he 
wrote the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm. There 
must be something in the fact that the longest chapter in 
the Bible is about the Bible itself. I want to call your 
attention to nine passages, in the one hundred and nine- 
teenth Psalm. Twenty-fifth verse, " Quicken me accord- 
ing to "Thy word." Thirty-seventh verse, " Quicken 
Thou me in Thy way." Fortieth verse, "Quicken me 
in Thy righteousness." What does this nation need 
to-day, more than to be quickened in righteousness? 
It is not mere gush and sentiment this nation 
wants, so much as it is a revival of downright honesty. 
Fiftieth verse, "This is my comfort in my affliction; 
for Thy word hath quickened me." Eighty-eighth verse, 

600 




David Sparing Saul. I Samuel, xxiv. 



HOW TO CONVERT INFIDELS. 603 

" Quicken me with Thy lovingkindness." Ninety-third 
verse, ' ' I will never forget Thy precepts, for with them 
Thou hast quickened me." One hundred and seventh 
verse, " I am afflicted very much; quicken me, O Lord, 
according to Thy word. " One hundred and fifty-fourth 
verse, " Plead my cause and deliver me; quicken me ac- 
cording to Thy word." One hundred and fifty-sixth 
verse, " Great are Thy tender mercies, O Lord; quicken 
me according to Thy judgments." That is the way it 
goes, quicken me according to Thy word, according to 
Thy precepts, according to Thy way. That's what we 
all want to pray this morning. An old Scotchman made 
this remark, ' ' David said, ' I have hid Thy word in my 
heart.' That was a good thing, in a good place, for a 
good purpose. " Some people carry the Bible under their 
arms. Well, that's better than not to carry it at all. 
Some people have got a good deal of it in their heads. 
That's better. But when you get it in the heart, that is 
best of all. When a man gets the Bible in his heart, it 
is going to make a change in his whole life. The trouble 
with a good many Christians is they are good in spots. 
A man once said he had a good well, only it would dry 
up in summer, and freeze up in winter. Some Christians 
are just like that well, good at certain times. But when 
a man is feeding on the word of God, he is good all the 
time. I really think that instead of so many of the 
prayer-meetings we have, we ought to have more meet- 
ings for reading and studying the word of God. When 
I pray, I am talking to God; when I am reading the 
word, it is God speaking to me. David said the word of 
God was like fire in his bones. I don't believe a man or 
woman is fit for God's service till they catch fire in this 
way. 



604 Moody's sermons. 

Now, it is getting to be very common, very fashiona- 
ble in certain quarters, even among professed Christians, 
to hear men say. " I believe in the New Testament, but 
I don't believe in the Old." We hear that on the right 
hand, and on the left. I pray to God that we may be 
delivered from this idea. It is doing a thousand times 
more harm than all the lectures of infidels, to hear Chris- 
tians say, ''This and this isn't inspired." One minister 
said he had cut everything down to the four gospels. 
They contained everything, and he didn't see why he 
shouldn't do as St. Paul did, and go to the fountain-head. 
It wasn't long before that man fell into sin. Unsound in 
doctrine, unsound in practice. We want to believe the 
whole Bible. We want to take the whole of it, from 
Genesis to Revelation. It is most absurd to hear a man 
talk about believing in the New Testament, and not be- 
lieving the Old. In the four gospels Christ quotes from 
twenty-two of the books of the Old Testament. I sup- 
pose, we get only a fragment of what Christ said. I be- 
lieve that for years after the death of Christ, the air was 
full of the words which fell from His lips. And so I 
have no doubt that in His quotations from the Old Tes- 
tament He quoted from even' book. In His words, as 
recorded in Matthew, we find nineteen quotations, in 
Mark fifteen, in Luke twenty-five, and in John eleven 
different passages; not only just isolated verses, but great 
blocks taken out of the Old Testament and transferred 
into the New. So yon see how absurd it is for men to 
say they believe in the New, and don't believe in the 
Old. Why, the New Testament is made up largely from 
passages from the Old. Over and over again you will 
hear Christ say, M This is done that the Scriptures might 



HOW TO CONVERT INFIDELS. 605 

be fulfilled." In Hebrews there are eighty-five Old Tes- 
tament quotations. In Revelation there are two hun- 
dred and forty-five, more than in any other book. 
" Heaven and earth shall pass away," said Christ, "but 
My word shall not pass away." How absurd for any one 
to think the word of God is going to pass away! There 
never was a time in the history of the world, when so 
many Bibles were being printed as there are to-day. 
When Christ was speaking those words, I can just im- 
agine I hear some infidel saying, ' ' ' Heaven and earth 
shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away!' 
Hear that Jewish peasant talk! I never heard such con- 
ceit in my life from any one." There was no shorthand 
reporter taking down His words, and they seemed to 
have been lost. But nearly nineteen hundred years pass 
away, and His words are going to the very corners of the 
earth, in two hundred and fifty different languages. 
There are about 1,400,000,000 people in the world, and 
over 200,000,000 copies of the Bible have been printed 
by the American Bible society and the British and 
Foreign Bible society. Then there are societies in 
Germany, France, and other countries, exclusive of indi- 
viduals, that are printing and circulating the Scriptures. 
In fact, there have been more Bibles printed in the last 
seventy years than there were in the previous eighteen 
hundred years. I consider that a greater miracle than 
any which Christ wrought when He was here on 
earth. I'm glad I live in the present day, and can see it. 
A lady said to me lately, " I can't believe that Elijah 
was fed by ravens. Do you?" I have no more doubt 
that the ravens fed Elijah than I have that I stand here. 
The very things in the Old Testament that men cavil at 



606 Moody's sermons. 

the most to-day are the things the son of man set his 
seal to when He was down here, and it is not good policy 
for a servant to be above his master. The Master be- 
lieved these things. Some one says, " You don't believe 
the story of Noah and the flood, do you?" Yes; I believe 
that as much as I believe the sermon on the mount. 
Christ said that when He should come again, it would be 
as in the days of Noah, when men were eating and drink- 
ing, and the flood came and took them all off. " You 
don't believe Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt?" 
Yes; Christ said, " As it was in the days of Lot, so shall 
it be in the coming of the son of man." //"<? believed 
that story of Lot's wife; hadn't any doubt about it. " Do 
you believe that the children of Israel were fed in the 
desert on manna?" Christ said, " Your fathers ate man- 
na." " Do you believe the Israelites were saved by look- 
ing on a brass serpent?" Christ said, " Even as Moses 
lifted up the brazen serpent." Men will stretch their 
necks, and look very wise, and say, " Why, you don't 
believe that story about Jonah and the whale?" Yes, 
I do. Christ said, " For as Jonah was three days in the 
whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days in the 
bowels of the earth." " But," they say, "this was im- 
possible. The whale is so constructed that it couldn't 
swallow a man." Well, what does the Bible say? "God 
prepared a great fish." If He could speak this world into 
existence, I think He could speak a fish into existence 
big enough to swallow a man. I have a good deal of 
sympathy with that old colored woman who said, if the 
Bible said Jonah swallowed the whale, she would believe 
it; God could make a man large enough to swallow a 
whale. There's no trouble about these things, dear 



HOW TO CONVERT INFIDELS. 607 

friends; no difficulty at all. One of these modern philos- 
ophers, discussing the story of Balaam, said he had ex- 
amined the mouth of an ass, and it was physically im- 
possible for an ass to speak. "Ah," said a friend "you 
make an ass, and I will make him speak." There's 
nothing more unreasonable than infidelity. 

The best way to convert an infidel is to take him to the 
prophecies fulfilled. Look at the prophecies concerning 
Christ. " His name shall be called wonderful." Wasn't 
everything about Him wonderful? Born of a virgin, carried 
into Egypt, astounding the doctors when twelve years old 
in the temple. Everything about His three years' minis- 
try was wonderful; the miracles He performed, His cruci- 
fixion with the sun darkened, and the veil of the temple 
rent, His resurrection. Isn't His name wonderful to-day? 
Nineteen hundred years have passed, and what crowds 
will flock to hear about Christ! No other name could 
have brought you into this little town. Nothing else 
brought you from all over the country but to be with 
Jesus. Yes; His name is called wonderful. 

And so, my friends, what we want is just to take up 
the word of God, and let it speak for itself. I have been 
wonderfully blessed to-day, in reading about Babylon 
falling. Take the prophecies in regard to Nineveh, and 
see how they have been fulfilled. When I was in the 
British museum, a lady called my attention to certain 
relics from Nineveh. I looked at them with more inter- 
est through her specs. In Nahum, iii, 6, the Lord says 
concerning Nineveh, "I will cast abominable filth upon 
thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing 
stock." Isn't that exactly what it is, with hundreds of 
thousands of people looking at these things in the British 



608 Moody's sermons. 

museum taken up out of Nineveh? ''They that look 
upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid 
waste." Isn't it what travelers are saying to-day? And 
then look at Tyre. In Ezekiel, xxvi, 5, the Lord says, 
"It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the 
middle of the sea." Mr. Corbin, correspondent of the 
Boston Journal, visited Palestine in 1868, and he has 
told me that one night, pitching his tent on the site of 
Tyre, what should he see but a number of men on a bare 
rock spreading their fishing nets? Taking out his Bible, 
he read this prophecy, and noticed how literally it was 
fulfilled. 

It is true there are things in the Bible we don't under- 
stand, but we are not going to say, " I don't believe it, 
because I don't understand it." A man said to me once, 
' ' What do you do with that passage? How do you under- 
stand it?" "I don't understand it." "How do you 
explain it?" " I don't explain it." " What do you do?" 
" I don't do anything." There are lots of things I believe 
that I don't understand. There are a good many things 
in astronomy, a good many things about my own system, 
I don't understand; yet I believe them. And I'm glad 
there are things in the Bible I don't understand. If I 
could take that book up, and read it as I would any other 
book, I might think I could write a book like that, and so 
could you. I am glad there are heights I haven't been 
able to climb up to. I am glad there are depths I have 
not been able to fathom. It's the best proof that the 
book came from God. I suppose there are a good many 
things in the prophecies concerning Christ that no one 
could understand, till Christ came and fulfilled them. 
Just look at some of those prophecies. He was to be 



HOW TO CONVERT INFIDELS. 609 

born in Bethlehem, and carried into Egypt. When that 
announcement was made, how strange it must have 
sounded! But when the time came, God put the whole 
world in motion to bring Mary to Bethlehem, so that 
Jesus might be born there. Caesar issued a decree that 
the whole world should be taxed. All this was done just 
to bring that virgin up to Bethlehem. I believe that 
God would have created a world rather than any 
prophecy should be unfulfilled. 

Now, the question is, how are you going to read this 
book? When I was a young man, I thought I must be 
fed with ecclesiastical spoons. Sometimes I got sawdust; 
sometimes I got salt; sometimes I got bread. When my 
little boy Paul first learned to find the way to his mouth, 
he wanted everybody to know about it, and it was a great 
event in our family. Lots of men have been in the church 
forty years, and if you ask them what they believe, they 
will say, "What the church believes." " Well, what does 
the church believe?" " I don't know." I don't believe 
any child of God is going to grow till he has learned to 
feed himself. What may be good for me may not be 
good for you. 

I have been wonderfully blessed, in studying the Bible, 
by taking up one book at a time. I used to try to read 
the Bible through in a year. I would as soon read a dic- 
tionary that way now. Sometimes I want something to 
stir me up; other days, I want something to comfort me. 
When you read right through, you don't get much com- 
fort. It is a great deal better, it seems to me, to take a 
book at a time. Or take a character. Or take a type. 
How many antetypes there were of Christ; Adam, Abel, 
Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and so on all 



610 Moody's sermons. 

through the Old Testament. What a beautiful type Jo- 
seph is — hated, rejected, and then raised to a throne! 
You can't look into these things without getting fed. 
Another good thing is to take a subject. That's what we 
are trying to do in the boys' school; and that's how we 
are getting the boys grounded in the fundamental doc- 
trines of the Bible. 

Take ' ' repentance, " for example. Read up everything 
you can find about repentance. Take time. Suppose 
you spend a month; you couldn't spend it better. Get 
people's idea of repentance, and then see what the Bible 
says about it. Dozens of people have repented who don't 
know what repentance is. They think they have got 
to have some strange kind of feeling. A man I used to 
meet would say to me every time I spoke to him, " Mr. 
Moody, it hasn't struck me yet. A neighbor of mine 
has been converted, and he has been a changed man since ; 
but it hasn't struck me." Lots of people think repent- 
ance don't come in that way. See what Bible repentance 
is. It isn't fear, it isn't feeling. 

Then take up "conversion." Lots of people say, "I 
hate that word." In some churches there isn't much 
said about it, because people don't like it. But I have 
learned that sometimes the medicine people don't like 
may be the very best medicine for them. I don't like 
to take pills, but they may be the very thing I need. 
When people shrug their shoulders and say, " I don't like 
conversion," it is just the thing they want. 

Take up the Scripture doctrine of the necessity of being 
born again. Lots of people think they can go to heaven 
on a good moral character. Look at the parable of th e 
prodigal son. I would rather be the younger brother 



HOW TO CONVERT INFIDELS. 6ll 

than the other. The elder brother had what the world 
calls a good moral character, and yet I think he was 
about the meanest case in the whole Bible. He wouldn't 
rejoice when his younger brother got home, and didn't 
like it when his father had mercy on him. What caused 
joy in the father's heart caused envy in his. When he 
heard music and dancing, he wouldn't go in, and just 
marred that beautiful scene. Many churches are in the 
position of that elder brother, and don't believe in con- 
version. I wonder what some of these people will do 
when they get to heaven, and some converted thief is 
brought in. I suppose they'll say, ' ' Don't come near 
me. I don't want to be near you." Or when they meet 
Mary Magdalene, what will they do? I just think they 
will have to have a little corner in heaven, somewhere 
off by themselves. They can't sing the song of Moses 
and the lamb; the song of redemption. A man must be 
made meet for the kingdom of God, before he will want 
to go there. Put a man in the presence of God, before 
he is made meet for that presence, and he won't want to 
stay; it would be hell there for him. A man must be born 
of the spirit — born again — regenerated. We are hearing 
a good deal about reform, but what we want is regenera- 
tion. 

Then take up " Faith." We have got false ideas about 
faith. I used to think that God was going to give me all 
the faith I wanted right away. I was going to do wonders. 
God was going to give me faith enough to remove moun- 
tains, turn the world upside down. "Faith cometh by 
knowledge." The more you know about people the more 
faith you will have in them, if they deserve it. You will 
have faith in a good man, if you have known him two 



612 Moody's sermons. 

years; but you will know him a good deal better after ten 
years; and you will have more faith in him. Faith grows. 
And the way to get acquainted with God is by studying 
His word. 

Take up ''Justification" and " Pardon." Lots of peo- 
ple don't know there is any difference between the two 
things. But there is a great deal of difference. Sup- 
pose I commit some crime, and I am convicted, and then 
the governor pardons me. I come back to this town a 
pardoned man. But suppose the judge says there is 
nothing against me; I come back in a different position. 
There is a good deal of difference between justification 
and pardon. What you want is to read up these sub- 
jects. It is a great thing to be a justified man, God-jus- 
tified. And I think that brings light upon that eighth 
chapter of Romans. Who shall condemn one of God's 
elect? God justified me, and is He going to let any one 
turn round and bring something against me? That would 
be a queer God, wouldn't it, a queer judge? These great 
doctrines ought to be studied. 

Take " Sanctification." I hear a great many people 
talking about sanctification; but I think we ought to go 
more to the Bible to see what it says, and let the word 
of God speak for itself. When I was converted, I 
thought I was going to have no more trouble with the old 
nature. But I soon found that the old nature was there. 
I had just as bad a temper as if I hadn't been converted, 
and I would say, ' ' Why, that is the old temper coming 
back." By-and-by I learned that when a man is con- 
verted he has got two natures, the carnal nature and the 
spiritual nature. He has got a higher nature, and a 
lower nature. He has got the old man yet. Do you 



HOW TO CONVERT INFIDELS. 613 

think he is dead? Judicially he is, but in reality he ain't. 
If he was, you wouldn't have to watch him, would you? 
If a man is dead, he ain't going to run away, is he? We 
have to keep watching the old man, and putting him in 
subjection all the time. I don't know any doctrine that 
needs more to be preached in our churches than this, 
that there is danger of the old man coming back. 

I haven't got time to speak of the doctrine of the 
resurrection. I've got more comfort out of that doctrine 
than out of any other in the whole Bible. I look for- 
ward, to the time when I am going to have a resurrected 
body. My Savior is going to give me a body like His 
glorious body, that cannot faint, and cannot die. It is 
going to be just like His. I do not know anything that 
will take a man out of the world much quicker than this 
idea. You must look in the New York papers to see how 
bonds and stocks are. It takes a man right out of the 
current of the world. Then there is the controversy about 
the millennium. Some say Christ is coming at the begin- 
ning of the thousand years, and others that He is coming 
at the end of it. Let the Bible speak for itself. Don't 
listen to what this man and that man says about it, but 
study the Bible. And as Bishop Stevens, of Philadelphia, 
used to say, " Don't study it with your little red light of 
Methodism, or your little blue light of Presbyterianism, 
or the light of the Episcopal church, but just the light of 
Calvary." Come without prejudice and say, " Whatever 
this book teaches, I must receive." Don't say, "Well, I 
don't believe He is coming anyway for a thousand years. " 

Take up the doctrine of "Assurance." A good many 
people honestly believe that it is presumptuous to say 
they are saved; that they have passed from death unto 



614 Moody's sermons. 

life; that they are going to have a place at God's right 
hand. But this book teaches very clearly that we can 
know we are saved. If we want light we can get it. We 
can know we have passed from death unto life if we are 
in earnest about it. There are twenty-one chapters in 
the gospel of John, and they all speak of believing. 
"Believe " is the key of that gospel. It just runs right 
straight on in the whole book. But turn over into John's 
first epistle, and you will find that the key to that epistle 
is " Know." Forty-two times that word occurs in these 
few chapters. "These things are written that ye might 
know." I don't believe it is the mind of God we should 
go through the world in darkness, not knowing whether 
we have been saved or not. I think the best book on 
assurance is the first epistle of John. If you are in doubt 
about your own salvation, read it, and you will know. I 
think Christ taught this doctrine very clearly when the 
disciples came back to Him after He had sent them out 
by twos. They were greatly rejoiced because they had 
had such wonderful power, but He seemed to check 
them, and said, ' ' I will give you something to rejoice 
for. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven." 
He wanted them to know it. Do you think Paul, amid 
all his difficulties and persecutions, would have gone right 
on if he hadn't known his name was written in heaven? 
Do you think those martyrs would have gone to the stake, 
if they had had any doubt about their salvation? It is the 
privilege of every child of God to walk in the light; to 
say, ' ' Abba, Father! Heaven is my home. God is my 
Father, Jesus Christ is my Savior." I have just touched 
some of these great doctrines. 

In closing, let us take the book, and let us believe it 



HOW TO CONVERT INFIDELS. < 6l 5 

from beginning to end — every word true — and the words 
we can't understand, let us believe them. You that are 
working in the vineyard, feed on the word of God. I 
believe the reason the people won't come more than they 
do into our churches, is because we don't feed them 
enough on the word of God. They have been fed on 
sawdust long enough. For men who have nothing but 
essays it is hard to get pulpits, and it will be harder. 
The reason there are so many pulpits vacant, is that 
there aren't men enough willing to give the word of God. 
Go into one of our city parks in winter to feed the birds, 
and throw down a handful of sawdust. You may deceive 
them once, but you won't a second time. But throw 
down crumbs, and they'll sweep them up. So in the 
churches, give people the word of God, and they will 
know the difference. A man once made an artificial bee, 
and thought no one could tell the difference between that 
and a real bee. But another man said he could show 
the difference. He put the two bees down on the table, 
and then put a drop of honey before them. The real 
bee went for the honey. There are a great many artifi- 
cial Christians, and they don't want the word of God. 
They'll go somewhere else. Well, let them go. For 
every one that goes, five will take his place. What we 
want is to give people the word of God, in season and 
out of season. I think we have got to have more ex- 
pounding. A great many churches have mere exhortations 
all the time, and it gets very tiresome. There's got to be 
expounding as well as exhortation. I have got an idea 
that the Sunday morning services ought to be given to 
expounding, and the afternoon or Sunday night given to 
exhortation or preaching. I believe that is the reason 



6l6 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

the Scotch people have got the advantage of us Americans. 
I don't believe there is any place in the world where 
error has such a slim chance of getting a hold as in Scot- 
land. The Scotch are a most wonderful people. You've 
got to be careful in preaching to them, or the first thing 
you know some old woman will come up with her Bible 
under her shawl, and say, "Here; you said so and so. 
The Bible says so and so." If you make a misquotation, 
a Scotchman will straighten you right up; but you might 
make forty misquotations in an American church, and 
nobody would know the difference. We would have better 
preaching if people would open their Bibles, and see 
whether a man is preaching the word of God. In Scot- 
land a minister doesn't think of preaching till everybody 
has found the text. Go to Dr. Bonar's church, in Glas- 
gow. One of the most impressive scenes is to see twelve 
hundred or thirteen hundred people, and not a soul but 
has got a Bible. The old doctor will wait till every one 
has found the place, then he will tell them what the 
passage in that place means, and then he goes on to an- 
other verse. When I was in London the last time, a so- 
licitor — a lawyer — from Edinburgh came down to Lon- 
don to spend a Sunday there. After I had got through 
preaching, and had gone back to my little room, he came 
and said, " I was at Glasgow to hear Dr. Bonar. " I 
said, " I wish you would tell me "what he preached about," 
and he went on and told me. The subject was that 
passage in Galatians, in which Paul tells of his going up 
to Jerusalem to see Peter. The doctor, said my friend, 
just let his imagination loose a little in describing what 
took place between Paul and Peter. He could imagine 
that one day Peter said, " Paul, will you take a walk to- 



HOW TO CONVERT INFIDELS. 617 

day?" "Yes." So arm-in-arm they walk, talking about 
the kingdom of God. A little while, and they enter the 
garden of Gethsemane, and Peter says, "There is the 
very spot where Christ prayed. John fell asleep there. 
James right there. I was right there, asleep. I didn't 
know what He was passing through, though I had never 
seen Him so sorrowful. When I awoke, an angel stood 
right there, and there was Christ, sweating great drops 
of blood, the blood running down His face, passing 
through that last agony." The next day Peter turns to 
Paul, and says, "Will you take another walk to-day?" 
That day they go out toward Calvary, and- all at once 
Peter stops, and says, "There, Paul; this is the very 
spot where His cross was. It isn't quite filled up yet. 
One bleeding thief was hanging there, and the other 
there. Mary stood right there, John there, and James 
there. I was on the outskirts of the crowd. I couldn't 
bear to get near Him that day. I couldn't catch a glimpse 
of His eye, but just looked on Him." The next day Peter 
turns to Paul, and says, " Paul, shan't we take another 
walk to-day?" "Yes; I would be very glad." They go 
out toward Bethany, and suddenly Peter says, "There, 
Paul; this is the very last spot where I saw Him. We 
were talking with Him, and all at once I noticed His feet 
didn't touch the ground, and the last I ever saw of Him, 
He was up in the air; and while I stood there, two men 
— might have been Moses and Elias, I didn't know — ap- 
peared and talked. to us." Now, don't you think people 
like that kind of preaching? It will warm up these cold 
hearts of ours to hear about Christ. Don't you think 
that literally took place? Nineteen hundred years have 
passed away, and we go to Jerusalem and try to find these 



6l8 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

spots; and tell me that while Paul was the guest of Peter, 
he wouldn't take him and show him the very spot where 
the Lord and Master had gone away to heaven? I haven't 
any doubts about it. And what we want is just to take 
the Scriptures and make them real. That's what we 
want — to hear about Jesus Christ — and any minister that 
can feed his people and tell them about Christ is the man 
I want to hear. That's what we want in our churches. 
God help you that are preaching to preach the word of 
God. Make it as plain as you can. If we had more of 
the word of God, there would be fewer defalcations and 
scandals inside the church. It seems to me, the time is 
coming when there should be a change in the churches 
of God in this land. 




Lazarus and the Rich Man. Luke, xlv. 



EXCUSE-GIVING. 



Luke, xiv, 18-20. 

I will call your* attention to-night to the three men I 
have just read about. The first said unto him, ' ' I have 
bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it; 
I pray thee have me excused." 

To-night I have an invitation for you to a feast, not an 
ordinary, but a royal feast. The same invitation that was 
extended to these three men nineteen hundred years ago 
nearly is extended still to you. And you will notice that 
those three men all with one consent began to make ex- 
cuses. Now these three men didn't have an excuse, so 
they made one; there is a difference between having and 
making excuses. The first had bought a piece of ground 
and wanted to see it, just at supper-time; he hadn't made 
a partial bargain and was afraid some one would step in, 
and he would lose the land; I will venture to say he had 
gone over every rod of it lengthwise and across — men 
don't buy land without going to look at it; but he made 
that excuse. He could have accepted the invitation and 
gone to look over the land, too; he had plenty of time, 
but. he wanted some excuse. 

The second man had bought five yoke of oxen and must 

621 



622 Moody's 'sermons. 

prove them. Why didn't he prove them before he bought 
them? He had plenty of time to prove them; we know 
that he never took the oxen out of the stall that night. He 
had plenty of time to accept the invitation and then go 
and prove his oxen, but he didn't want to go, so he hid 
behind the five yoke of oxen. 

The third man's excuse was more absurd than the other 
two. " I have married a wife and therefore I cannot 
come." Why didn't he take his wife along with him? It 
would have been just the place for a young bride; young 
brides like to go to a feast. But the fact is the man 
didn't want to go and hadn't the honesty to come out and 
say so. 

I have no doubt there are hundreds of men who think 
they could conjure up a good deal better excuse than these 
three men. Now, I challenge you. If any of you men 
have a better excuse, get up and give it. These excuses 
look very absurd when you cone to look at them, but 
your own wouldn't look any better. 

One of the popular excuses now is this old book. You 
talk to a man now, especially a young man, and he says, 
1 ' I cannot become a Christian because there are so many 
things in that old book that I cannot understand. " Well, 
I want to say in the first place you don't know anything 
about it. There are very few men who have read the 
Bible anyway. Of all the skeptics I have seen, I have 
never seen but one who claimedto have read it through, 
and I doubted him, because he could not give but one 
verse in the Bible, and that was, " Jesus wept." You 
know it is very easy for men to talk about what they don't 
know anything of. 

As for the mysteries in that book, I am glad they are 



EXCUSE-GIVING. 623 

there. I am glad that there are heights and depths that 
I have never been able to fathom, and length and breadth 
that no man has ever been able to find out. [f I could 
take that book up and understand it all, it would be pretty 
good proof that it did not come from God. 

It is easy to talk against this book, but did you ever 
think how dark this old world would be without it? Mil- 
lions of men have gone down to the grave because of 
their loyalty to it. They have tried to stamp it out, 
but God has raised up witnesses for it. I thank God 
I live where this Bible is read. Anarchy, nihilism, 
socialism, would sweep this whole country, your property 
and your life would not be safe, if it was not for this old 
book. 

If you do not like the Bible, it is because it condemns 
your sins. So if you see a man to-morrow talking against 
the Bible, you may know he gets hit. Throw a stone 
among a group of dogs, and the dog that gets hit goes off 
yelping every time. 

But there is a Scotchman over there; he says, "Mr. 
Moody's excuses don't touch me at all. I don't know as 
I am one of the elect. If I am elected to be saved I will 
be saved, and if I am not I won't. I have nothing to do 
with it." Now, you have nothing more to do with the 
doctrine of election than the government of China. 
There is not one line about election put before the unbe- 
liever; your word is " whosoever." Why don't you carry 
the same argument into temporal things? To-morrow 
don't go to business; if God has decreed you shall succeed 
in business, you will; if not, you won't. 

I don't know that I am right in my theory, but I im- 
agine that when Christ appeared to John in Patmos in 



624 Moody's sermons. 

the spirit on the Lord's day he said, " John, I want you 
to write some messages to the churches," and he went on 
to write them, and then He said, " Before you seal up 
the book put in an invitation so broad that the whole 
world may feel invited;" and so the last invitation let 
"down into this thirsty world is, "The Spirit and the 
Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. 
And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let 
him take the water of life freely." 

Now, there is a young man up in the gallery who says, 
" Mr. Moody don't touch my difficulty; I tell you the rea- 
son I don't become a Christian. You want me to put on 
one of those long faces, look right straight up and down 
and have no more pleasure until I get to heaven. I am 
going to have a little fun in this world, and then I am going 
to make sure of heaven before I die. I will make all I 
can out of both worlds. I propose to give loose rein to 
my passions and lusts and have a good time." Now, I 
believe the biggest lie ever uttered in hell is that the 
devil is an easy master, and God a hard one. I would 
like to drive that back into perdition; and I testify now 
that my God is not a hard master, and the devil an easy 
one. I take up that old book, and I read, "The way of 
the transgressor is hard," and looking around me 1 see 
that it is hard. Go down to yon prison and ask the 
prisoner if it is not hard. Go with me to the gambler, 
the drunkard, the forger who has lost reputation, and ask 
them if the way of the transgressor is not hard. Then 
go and ask those who have been serving God for the last 
twenty years and see if they find the service of God is 
hard. I have tried both masters, and I want to say now 
my God is not a hard master. Take the most faithful 



EXCUSE-GIVING. fej" 

follower of the devil in this city for the last five years, 
and take one who has followed Jesus Christ most faith- 
fully, and let the two stand on this platform, and their 
very faces would tell the story. Look at that man, de- 
bauched, vile, low; he has had delirium tremens, feels 
snakes at times creeping up around him, and say the 
devil is an easy master. I suppose there are a good 
many men here who have served both masters in the last 
ten years; at some time you changed masters, gave up 
the service of the world and the devil and began to serve 
Christ. I would like to have those men who have found 
God is not a hard master ring out ''No" to-night. 
[Shouts of " No."] Do you think we are lying? Don't we 
know? Haven't we served the god of this world, and 
haven't we served the God of heaven? " My yoke is easy, 
and my burden is light." There is a joy in the service of 
Christ that the world knows nothing of, and you never 
will until you taste it. I wish I could describe it. It 
seems to me I could get you to change masters to-night if 
I could. If I could only get you to taste of this sweet 
consciousness that your sins have been put away, not a 
cloud between your soul and God! How many times 
your conscience rises up and lashes you! This is some- 
thing that the true child of God knows nothing of. 

There is a man down there in the middle of the hall 
who says that if he is ever converted he won't be con- 
verted in a meeting like this; too much excitement; if he 
is really honest, and he doesn't want to be converted here 
because there is so much interest, I will find him some 
church that doesn't believe in revivals, where everything 
is cold and dead; if there is too much excitement here, go 
to a graveyard and be converted. There is no excitement 



626 Moody's sermons. 

there. It is only an excuse. If I stood at that door, and 
every one of you had to pass out through it, and I asked 
every one of you a personal question, why you did not 
become a Christian to-night, I think many of you would 
give this excuse; you would say, " Mr. Moody, it is very 
kind of you to take such a personal interest in me, but 
the fact is I promised my wife I would be home to-night 
at nine o'clock; I will see you again." I have had men 
promising to see me again for thirty years. What have 
you done with all the time God has given you for the last 
365 days? Some of you have spent five years learning a 
trade. I will venture to say I am speaking now to some 
men who have never given five solid minutes to the con- 
sideration of their soul's salvation. Thank God it doesn't 
take time, it takes decision, and I pray God you may 
make that decision to-night. 

Here is a man at my right in the balcony who says, 
" I am glad Moody is giving it to them to night. I have 
been watching some men to-night, and I have seen him 
hit them, but he hasn't touched me. I haye got a good 
excuse. You know there is a man who belongs to a 
church here to-night who cheated me out of forty dollars 
ten years ago. Hypocrites! hypocrites! that is my ex- 
cuse." Now, I want to tell you something — don't forget 
it — if you meet a man howling about hypocrites, you just 
look out for him; he doesn't live far from one himself. 
Most people have the idea that a man has got to join a 
church to be a hypocrite; my friends, I will find a hun- 
dred in the world while you find one in the church. I 
admit they are there; when Christ chose His apostles, and 
I think He was about as good a judge of men as ever 
lived, one proved to be a hypocrite, and the wheat 



EXCUSE-GIVING. 627 

and tares will grow together till the general harvest. 
If you carried that out in temporal things, I would 
like to know where it would land you. If you are 
a doctor or lawyer or merchant, why don't you get up 
and get out of your profession because there are hypo- 
crites in it? 

When you put a foreign label on your goods made here 
at home, and tell your clerks to tell your customers they 
are imported, and when you sell goods that are half cotton 
for all wool, you are a hypocrite. Suppose there are 
hypocrites in the churches. " What is that to thee? Fol- 
low thou Me?" We don't ask you to follow church-mem- 
bers, but to follow the Son of God, and He was no hypo- 
crite. There is another man down there who says, ■ ' My 
trouble is altogether different; I can't believe. " Man, 
put your finger on a promise God has ever made that He 
hasn't kept. It is easier to pull the sun out of the 
heavens than to break one of God's promises; man and 
the devil have been trying for the last six thousand years, 
but they cannot be -broken. 

A man once said to me, " It is all nonsense that a man 
is going to be affected by just what he believes; how is 
that going to change his course of life?" I said, " If that 
is your difficulty, I can make you believe in about three 
minutes. You say a man is not affected by what he be- 
lieves, that that doesn't change his course of action. 
Suppose a man opens that door and sings out, ' The 
building is on fire.' If you and I believe it, what will we 
do? Go out of that window head first." " O," said he, 
'* I never thought of that." 

No man can believe that book without purifying his 



628 Moody's sermons. 

soul. That book says no adulterer, no drunkard shall 
inherit the kingdom of God. 

There is nothing unreasonable about that. We are 
going to get up where Adam tumbled down; that is all. 

But here is a man who says, " The trouble with me is, 
I do not feel so solemn to-night as I did last Sunday 
night; there's been altogether too much laughter. I 
would like to become a Christian, but I don't feel like it." 

These men were invited to a feast. Suppose they sent 
back word to the king that they didn't feel like going. 
Now, God invites men to a feast, and they talk about not 
feeling like going. Man, let your feelings go to the four 
winds. I don't think the prodigal did much feeling till 
he got his feet under his father's mahogany table. He 
began to feel then. The question is, do you want to 
come? If you do, come along. 

Now, I am going to give two excuses that men won't 
give. The first is a lack of moral courage. Men are 
cowards. How many men in this house to-night would 
become Christians, if it were not for public sentiment? 
"If I should become a Christian to-night, what would 
they say to me down at the store, at the boarding-house, 
in the saloon, where they have been making fun of Moody 
and the meetings?" I tell you what they would say. 
" Up to hear Moody last night, eh? Did Moody catch 
you? Did you get converted? Did you get pious? Did you 
get religion?" And you would say, "No, sir; I don't be- 
lieve in him; big humbug; I wasn't there." Let men 
act up to their convictions, and we would show you a 
meeting. The question is, is it right to serve God? If 
it is, take your stand and let the devil howl, and let his 
agents talk and sneer as much as they have a mind to. 



EXCUSE-GIVING. 629 

I pity in my heart a man who may be laughed out of a 
principle, a man who will let a saloon-keeper or a gam- 
bler or a harlot keep him from what is right. God have 
mercy on such a man! 

The next excuse that a man won't give is some darling, 
besetting sin; you know it comes right up before you 
now. If you become a Christian, you have got to give 
up that sin; it may be the harlot, it may be to make 
restitution of some money you have taken from your 
employer, it may be you have got to treat your wife and 
family better. O man, may God give you courage to- 
night to give up that sin! It is no fiction, my friend; it 
is a real invitation. Life is very sweet to me; I can con- 
ceive of no sweeter work than that I am engaged in. I 
have liberty and freedom, God has given me a lovely 
family, but dear as my family, sweet as my work is to 
me, I would rather have some man leap up on this plat- 
form and hurl me into another world and just sit down 
in the kingdom than to have the wealth of the world 
rolled at my feet, and miss that appointment. " Blessed 
is he that shall be at the marriage supper of the lamb." 
If your excuse will not stand the light of eternity, throw 
it to the four winds. But, you say, you don't like to be 
in a hurry about a thing like this, you must consider. 
Man, let me ask, have you not considered it? Was this 
question sprung on you to-night, for the first time? These 
three men were invited, and were expected to give an 
answer. Christ said, " None of those that were bidden 
shall taste of my supper." God will take you at your 
word and will excuse you, and if God does excuse you, 
you will be gone for time and eternity. Think of the 
blessed company that will be there. Suppose we were 
going to write out the excuse to-night: 



630 Moody's sermons. 

"To the King of kings, to the Lord of glory: 

" I received a pressing invitation from one of your ministers to be pres- 
ent at the marriage supper of your only begotten Son: I pray Thee to 
have me excused" 



Who would sign that? 1 don't believe that there is a 
man in this house that could be hired to do it. It is a 
solemn thing to look into this house to-night and see so 
many young men here between twenty and thirty years 
of age, so many streams going to flow out from this meet- 
ing, but I tell you what is a more solemn thing, to think 
that inside of fifteen minutes many a man that 
is almost holding his breath now, listening to things that 
pertain to his eternal destiny, will be in the street, some 
cracking jokes about the preaching, and turning the 
whole thing into a jest. I beg of you to-night, do not 
make light of this invitation. I can imagine some of 
you saying, " My father and mother were godly people; 
they are in glory now; I may be pretty wild, but I never 
got so wild as to make light of religious things." You do 
make light of it, if you go out without answering this 
invitation. 

Let us see if we can all sign this: 

"To the King of kings, to the Lord of glory: 

' ' While sitting in a religious meeting, I received a pressing invitation 
from one of your servants to be present at the supper of your only be- 
gotten Son. I hasten to reply. By the grace of God I will be there." 

Who will sign that? Who has the courage to speak out 
and say, " I will?" It may be a sainted mother is watch- 
ing, and listening to see if her boy is coming. Let the 



EXCUSE-GIVING. 63 1 

answer go up to that sainted mother, ' ' Mother, I am 
coming." O man, you can make joy in heaven now if 
you say, "I will." If you confess Christ before men, 
He will confess you before the Father and the holy 
angels. 



THE WORK OF THE SHEPHERD. 



I want to call your attention to the work of the shep- 
herd. The work of a shepherd is to feed and to care 
for his flock. Some one asked a young convert how he 
knew Christ was divine. He says, " Because He has 
saved me, and because He keeps me." A pretty good 
proof, it seems to me. I see a person in the house that 
is troubled about the divinity of Jesus Christ. I was 
once talking with an atheist in my town, and I got him 
to read the New Testament. He came back in a few 
days and said, "Mr. Moody, I have taken your advice, 
and read the life of Jesus Christ, and I have come to the 
conclusion that John the Baptist was a greater character 
than Jesus Christ. Why don't you preach John the 
Baptist?" "Well," I said, "you go- through the country 
and preach in the name of John the Baptist, and I will 
follow, and preach in the name of Jesus Christ, and I 
venture to say that I will have more followers than you." 
" O, well," he said, "of course you would, because peo- 
ple are very superstitious." "No; when they buried 
John the Baptist they buried him, and he hasn't got up 
yet. But when they buried the Son of God they could 
not hold Him. He rose again. We don't worship a 

632 




The Martyrdom of Stephen. Acts, vii, 54-60. 



THE WORK OF THE SHEPHERDo 635 

dead Christ; He is a glorified Christ. " If Christ hadn't 
risen, do you believe this audience would be here this 
afternoon? Never! Gathered around a dead Jew, who 
was buried in the sepulcher at Jerusalem! Do you believe 
His name would give power, and quicken? 

Now, I want to get your attention. Let's come to the 
work of the shepherd. In the thirty-fourth chapter of 
Ezekiel, there are two things that he tells us the shep- 
herd will do. I haven't got time to take them all up, 
but will just read a few things that the shepherd has 
promised to do. Thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel, 
eleventh verse. 

Now, of course, I have only just time to touch upon 
the things he says he will do. "I will seek them out." 
Christ, when He came, said He had come to seek and 
save that which was lost. That is His work. It is the 
work of the shepherd to seek the lost. Who ever heard 
of a sheep seeking out a lost shepherd? A great many 
people say they cannot find Christ. He is seeking you 
out to find you. And not only does He find you, but He 
keeps you. That is what He came from heaven to do, to 
seek and save the lost. 

I remember, when we were in London, they found one 
old woman who was eighty-five years old, and not a Chris- 
tian. After the worker had prayed, she made a prayer 
herself, "O Lord, I thank Thee for going out of Thy 
way to find me. " He is all the time going out of His way 
to find the lost. At one time He went up to the coast of 
Tyre. There was a poor woman groping in the darkness, 
and the Shepherd went and found her. "I will feed 
them in a good pasture." Now, I tell you He has a good 
many lean sheep, but some old divine says He has none 



636 Moody's sermons. 

in His pasture; they have got out. If they will go into 
forbidden places they will get lean. You get your lean- 
ness by going after the world and worldly things. But 
He " feeds them in a good pasture." 

11 I will deliver them." That is His work. Now, He 
not only saved the children of Israel, but He delivered 
them. He not only saves us, but delivers us. I thank 
Jesus Christ that He is a deliverer. I don't believe He 
saves us, and then leaves us in prison. "I will deliver 
them." 

" I will gather them from the people." Separate them. 
That is what we want, separation. And if we are going 
to have real Holy Ghost power here, we must be sepa- 
rated. There must be a separation. That is when God's 
people have power, not when they are in sympathy with 
the ungodly. Remember, we are His witnesses. We 
want to keep that in mind. A friend of mine was walk- 
ing up the streets of Philadelphia some years ago, and he 
saw a church-member in a saloon playing cards. He took 
a card from his pocket, and wrote upon it, " Ye are my 
witnesses." He called a little boy to him and said, 
" You see that man sitting at the end of that table, play- 
ing cards?" "Yes." "Well, just take that card to him, 
and I will give you five cents." He gave him a nickel, 
the boy slipped in, and he slipped over to the other side 
of the street. The man read, " Ye are my witnesses. " 
He sprung up and said, ' ' Hello, my boy, who gave you 
that?" "Don't know." The man had gotten away. Yes, 
we are His witnesses, and we don't want to be found in 
a place like that. 

" I will bring them to their land." That is what He 
wants, to bring them out of the world to His own land. 



THE WORK OF THE SHEPHERD. 637 

" I will bind up that which was broken." Yes, every 
broken heart, every bleeding heart, He will bind up. 
That is what God sent Him into the world to do. There 
is not a broken, bleeding heart here to-day, but that 
Christ can heal it. 

4 ' I will strengthen. " People say that they haven't any 
strength. That is all right. We don't want any of our 
own strength; we want His strength. He has plenty of 
strength, and all that you need. The weaker we are, the 
better for us, for then we lay hold of God's strength. He 
will put strength into every one of His sheep, if they will 
let Him. 

•' I will save my flock." I want to tell you, my dear 
friends, if your religion isn't saving you from sin, and 
keeping you day by day from it, it is a sham; it is not 
the religion of Jesus Christ. ' ' His name shall be called 
Jesus, because He shall save His people from their sins." 
He comes to us in our sins, but saves us from our sins. 
That is the only test that is worth having; that Christ is 
saving you from sin. 

"I will set up one shepherd over them." You may 
have your different churches, but we have only one Christ 
after all. Do you know that? All these miserable sec- 
tarian walls have been built up by men. The Catholics 
have the same Christ as the Protestants — one shepherd, 
one Christ. The quicker we recognize that fact the 
better. We must get nearer and nearer together, if we 
are going to have power. If we are going to get nearer 
the shepherd, we have got to get nearer together. 

44 1 will make them a covenant of peace." He brought 
peace. People are trying to make it. He made it by 
the blood of the cross, and all we have got to do is enter 
into it. 



638 Moody's sermons. 

"I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land." 
When a man is at peace with God, he is at peace with 
every one. He can have a beautiful, peaceful, joyful 
Christian life, if he will only walk with God. That is 
what we want, is just to have this victorious life. 

• ' I will cause the showers to come down. " That is just 
what we want here. Isn't it? If you want the real fruit, 
just pray. He is able and willing and anxious to do it, 
and it will bring great honor and glory to His Son, if the 
tide comes in here, and a wave goes out from this city 
that will go away across this continent. Why not? Let 
us expect great things, and we shall not be disappointed. 

' ' I will raise them up a plant of renown. " Thank God. 
He has been raised up. Christ has come since that was 
prophesied. 

' ' I will satisfy them. " I want to say that there is only 
one thing that will satisfy a longing heart, and that is 
Jesus Christ. The world will not satisfy. A proof of 
that is that the man who has the most of this world's 
goods gets the least out of it. Isn't it so? You never 
saw a millionaire in your life that was satisfied. When 
he gets one million, he wants three; and when he gets 
three, he wants ten, and so on. Why, I remember my- 
self, when a millionaire was considered quite a rich man; 
but he is nothing now. He must have a hundred million. 
I pity him, don't you? I do. I just pity them, because 
they are not satisfied. The fact is, when God made your 
heart and mine, He made them a little too big for this 
world. That is just what Christ undertakes to do, to 
satisfy. You know sheep never lie down until they get 
enough to eat and drink. And so it says, ll I will make 
them rest." He will just satisfy them so that they rest. 



THE WORK OF THE SHEPHERD. 639 

That is just what we want. We want rest for ourselves, 
before we can work for others. If we are restless and 
agitated, and don't get rest for our own soul, we are the 
last ones to help any one else. He instructed us, and 
kept us as the apple of His eye. He keeps. Wonder- 
ful shepherd! He is able to keep every one of His sheep. 
People are always talking about not being able to keep 
Christ. Man, let Christ keep you. I remember when 
my little girl was about four years old, she was always 
teasing for one of those black and white muffs, and she 
kept on teasing and teasing, and one day her mother 
brought her home a black and white muff. She came to 
my room and said, "Come, papa; let's go and take a 
walk." I was very busy, and said T could not go. But 
you know when you have an only daughter, she can do 
about as she wants to with you. She knew she would 
get me. And we went out. It was icy, and I said, 
"Emma, you had better let me take your hand." But 
she wouldn't let me, and she strutted down the street. 
She wanted to walk as her mother did, and show off her 
new muff. We went along, and finally she fell and hurt 
herself a little. I said, ' ' Now, Emma, you'd better let 
me take your hand." "No, no;" she wouldn't. Very 
independent! But by-and-by down she went again, and 
she said, "Papa, I wish you would let me take your 
little finger." " You'd better let me take your hand." But 
she wouldn't; she only wanted my little finger. So I 
gave her my little finger. Down she went again, and 
she hurt her that time. "Papa, just take my hand, 
please." I put my big hand around her little wrist, and 
when her feet went from under her again, she didn't go 
down. That is the way the shepherd does; He keeps. 



640 Moody's sermons. 

Give the whole thing up; your trying does not amount to 
anything. Trust Him to hold and keep you. The shep- 
herd will keep all that commit themselves to Him. Just 
say, "Lord, I cannot stand without your help. The 
temptations are so numerous that I cannot help myself, 
but I have put my hand into the hand of the Eternal 
God, and I believe He will hold me." Thank God for 
the promise that He will keep us! Let that sink down 
into your soul. He will keep all who commit themselves 
to Him. Just trust Him now to keep you. Remember 
that it is His work to keep you, and if you go astray, it 
is His work to bring you back. The shepherd goes and 
gets the sheep, and puts it on his shoulder and brings it 
back. That man who had the hundred sheep didn't say 
he would let the sheep find its way back. He went out 
to find it. He went out and searched until he found it, 
and when he found it, he didn't beat, nor maul, nor kick 
it, but just kindly put it on his shoulder and carried it 
home. There was a young minister I heard about some 
time ago, who went to take charge of a church that had 
been under the care of an old pastor; and he went to 
scolding the people, and he kept that up for six months. 
One day one of the old deacons asked him home to din- 
ner with him. After dinner, the old deacon asked him 
if he had read the twenty-first chapter of John. " Read 
it! I hope I have read every chapter in the Bible. Read 
it! Why, of course I have." So, the old deacon got 
his Bible, and began to read it. He got down to where 
the Lord is sifting Peter and testing him. " Peter, 
lovest thou Me more than these? Beat my sheep." 
"Peter, lovest thou Me more than these? Maul my 
sheep." -■ Lovest thou Me more than these? Wallop 



THE WORK OF THE SHEPHERD. 64 1 

my sheep." "Why, "said the minister to the deacon, 
"that isn't there." " Well, I thought I would read it to 
you, as you have been at us for the last six months and 
see how it sounded." You never made a sheep fat in 
that way. Feed them well, if you want them to work 
and grow fat. I tell you I honestly believe we have too 
much preaching in the exhorting line. Exhort! Exhort! 
Exhort! I believe that the church needs to be fed; and 
where there is one sermon preached to the unconverted, 
I wish we had one hundred preached to the church-mem- 
bers. They watch the church-members and say, "Look 
at that man and woman; they are members of the church. 
If that is religion, I don't want any of it." And I don't 
blame them. Do you? Now, what we want is to keep 
that in mind. Feed them. That is what the good 
shepherd will do. Why, a man said he would take a 
fat sheep and make it lean in a week. There was a bet 
on that statement, and they put up the money. They 
took a sheep and put it in a cage, and then they went 
and got a dog. That dog kept barking at the sheep and 
worried it so that it was quite poor in a week. There 
are lots of sheep that are scared. "And I give unto 
them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither 
shall any one pluck them out of my hand." Never. 
Twenty-eight times in this chapter He uses the pro- 
noun to tell what He will do for His sheep. Some old 
divine has said that all of God's sheep have three marks. 
You know in California, and some of those places where 
they have a great many sheep, they have their marks and 
register them, just as some business men register their 
trademark. First, they hear; second, they know his 
voice; and, third, they follow. That is the way you can 



642 Moody's sermons. 

tell a true sheep. They know God's voice, and they 
don't try to follow; but they do follow. You can tell a 
sheep from a goat in that way. Tenth chapter of John, 
third verse. Now, if you want life to your soul just listen 
to the word of God, let the word of God sink down into 
your soul. "Verily, verily; I say unto you" — put 
your name in there. — "he that heareth My word and 
believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and 
shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from 
death unto life." You can come into the open fold 
through that door this very hour if you will. There is 
not an unsaved one here who may not enter the fold of 
God now if he will. 

They knew his voice. A great many people cannot tell 
the voice of God from the voice of a false shepherd. 
There was a friend of mine at Mt. Vernon some time ago, 
and two shepherds came down to the water, and he said 
he thought there were fully ten thousand sheep. These 
shepherds were talking, and he wondered how they were 
going to get their sheep separated. One shepherd got up 
and put on his turban, and then he spoke to the sheep, 
and they knew his voice. All his sheep followed him. 
He didn't drive them. The other one called his sheep, 
and they followed him. This friend of mine said to the 
shepherd, "Do all these sheep know you? Does every 
one of your sheep know you?" "Why, yes." "Can't 
you deceive them?" And the old shepherd laughed at the 
idea; he thought it was too absurd for anything. And 
my friend said, " Now, just let me try it. Let me have 
your frock and turban, and you go behind a tree." He 
called out just as the shepherd had told him, " Mena, 
Mena." The sheep scattered in all directions. They 



THE WORK OF THE SHEPHERD. 643 

knew it was a strange voice. Then he said to the shep- 
herd, " Won't they follow a stranger?" " Well," he said, 
" a sick sheep will follow a stranger, but not a healthy 
one." (Why, you see the point, don't you?) Have you 
any unhealthy sheep around here? I tell you the true 
sheep know a true shepherd. I got up in Scotland once 
and quoted a passage of Scripture a little different from 
what it was in the Bible, and an old woman crept up and 

said, "Mr. Moody, you said . " I might make forty 

misquotations here, and no one would tell me about 
them. Like two lawyers, one said in court that the other 
didn't know the Lord's prayer. The other said he did. 
" Now I lay me down to sleep." " Well," he said, " I 
give it up. You do know it." Didn't either one of them 
know it, you see. 

Now, they do follow. Mark ye. They don't try to 
follow, I wish we could abolish that word "try." I really 
believe I have had more than twenty-five people here tell 
me they were " going to try real hard to be Christians." 
My friends, that does not amount to anything. That is a 
very slippery rock to get on. Try, try, try. I have heard 
persons say, ' ' You know the Bible says try, try, try 
again." They thought that was in the Bible. You can- 
not find a place in the Bible where you are told to try. 
Just follow Him. Let that word " try " be banished, and 
put in the word " trust." God will always help a manor 
a woman that wants to follow His Son. Now, people 
are looking after happiness, peace and joy, after the 
fruits of the spirit. My dear friends, you get done look- 
ing after these things and look to Christ, and you will 
have them. You don't have to look for these things. I 
don't know but I have used this illustration before, about 



644 Moody's sermons. 

trying to catch your shadow. I remember when I was 
a boy I used to try to jump over the shadow of my head, 
but I never succeeded in getting over it. Then I would 
try to outrun it, but I never could. I remember coming 
down the mountain side one night, and a boy Was trying 
to catch me. I looked around and saw my shadow run- 
ning after me. Well, the sweetest lesson I have learned 
since I have been in Christ's school is just to face the 
great shepherd, and the shadow follows. Look for 
Christ, and you will not be in the dark. Now, if there is a 
man or woman here that is in the dark to-day, I will tell 
you why. It is because you have got away from the 
Shepherd, because you are afraid of Him. Just get near 
the Shepherd if you want food, light, peace and joy. 
Don't try to follow, but just follow. When you were a 
boy and went to school, it wasn't a matter of feeling, but 
obedience. What you want is will. The thing we are 
told to do is just to follow, and if we do we are not going 
to be allowed to walk in the dark. Tenth chapter of 
John, third verse, " He calleth them by name." I get a 
good deal of comfort out of that fact — that the Shepherd 
knows me by my name. Why! He, Saul of Tarsus, 
knew all about Him. He knew little of Samuel. See! 
The Shepherd knows us by name. A friend of mine was 
in Syria, and he found a shepherd that kept up the old 
custom of naming his sheep. This friend of mine said 
he wouldn't believe that the sheep knew him when he 
called them by name. So he asked the shepherd if the 
sheep were all named, and if they all knew their names. 
" I wish you would just callone or two." The shepherd 
said, "Carl." The sheep stopped eating and looked up v ' 
The shepherd called out, "Come here." The sheep 



THE WORK OF THE SHEPHERD. 645 

came and stood looking up into his face. He called an- 
other and another, he called about a dozen sheep, and 
there they stood looking up at the shepherd. " How can 
you tell them apart?" " O, there are no two alike. See, 
that sheep toes in a little; this sheep is a little bit squint- 
eyed; that sheep has a black spot on its nose." My 
friend found that he knew every one of his sheep by their 
failings. He didn't have a perfect one in his flock. I 
suppose that is the way the Lord knows you and me. 
There is a man that is covetous; he wants to grasp the 
whole world. He wants a shepherd to keep down that 
spirit. There is a woman down there who has an awful 
tongue; she keeps the whole neighborhood stirred up. 
There is a woman over there who is deceitful, terribly so. 
She needs the care of a shepherd to keep her from deceit, 
for she will ruin all her children. They will all turn out 
just like their mother. There is a father over there who 
wouldn't swear for all the world before his children, but 
sometimes he gets provoked in his business and swears 
before he knows it. Doesn't he need a shepherd's care? 
I would like to know if there is a man or woman here 
who doesn't need the care of a shepherd. Haven't we 
all got failings? If you really want to know what your 
failings are, you can find some one who can point them 
out. God would never have sent Christ into the world, 
if we didn't need His care. We are as weak and foolish 
as sheep. 

I wish I had time to dwell on the tenderness of the 
shepherd. I find that Satan takes the advantage of some 
people in this way. A child dies, is taken from a home, 
and Satan says, " Ministers tell about the tenderness and 
kindness and love of the Shepherd; don't you see how he 



646 Moody's sermons. 

has wounded you?" . My dear friend, don't let Satan get 
the best of you. A friend of mine in New York (I was 
going to say the best- man I ever knew) sat right by me 
and worked as no other minister did. He had four beau- 
tiful children, and scarlet fever just came in and swept 
them all away. The poor man tried to get comfort. He 
couldn't find it, and he went off to Europe, traveled all 
through Great Britain, couldn't get rest, and finally went 
off to Syria. One day he and his wife went down to the 
stream; they saw a shepherd come down with a flock of 
sheep. The shepherd went into the stream and called 
the sheep after him. They looked down at him very 
wistfully, but couldn't follow because they had little 
lambs. 

Finally the shepherd came out of the water and picked 
up a little lamb, and put it into his bosom. The two old 
sheep that had lost their little ones, instead of looking at 
the water in fear, began to look up to the shepherd and 
bleat. They followed him close into the stream because 
their loved ones were there. 

By-and-by he got them all over into a greener pasture, 
into a better place, and when he got them safely over, he 
took the little lambs out of his bosom. The father and 
mother stood there and watched, and they said, ( ' That is 
what the great Palestine Shepherd has done with our 
little ones." 

He has taken them across the stream into greener pas- 
ture, home to a better place. 

They are back in New York at work for other children. 
My friends, don't let Satan get the advantage of you. A 
titled lady was telling me some time ago, when I was in 
England, that one day she was out riding, and she saw a 



THE WORK OF THE SHEPHERD. 647 

shepherd who had some dogs driving sheep. If the sheep 
stopped to drink out of the pools in the streets, he would 
have the dogs after them. She kept saying, "O, you 
cruel man!" But by-and-by he came to a beautiful park, 
opened the great iron gate, and let all the sheep in there 
where the grass was knee high, beautiful, sweet, fresh 
grass, and a beautiful river running right through the 
park; and she said he wasn't so cruel after all. He was 
only trying to get them to a better place. My dear 
friends, our loved ones are passing away, but they are 
going to a better field. There is a passage here I would 
just like to read to you. Hebrews, xii, 5: " And ye have 
forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as 
unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening 
of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him, 
for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth 
every son whom He receiveth." 



THE CENTURION AT CAPERNAUM. 



I want to call your attention to the centurion that we 
have just read about at Capernaum. He is one of those 
nameless characters that shine very brightly upon the 
stage of history. For some reason the Holy Ghost hasn't 
given us his name. There are quite a number of name- 
less characters that have shone very brightly in this world, 
in the Scripture. A good many of us would like to know 
who that woman at the well was; she is one of those 
characters we would like to meet when we get to heaven. 
We would like to know the name of that woman whom 
He met way up on the coast of Tyre; that blind beggar 
that takes up more room than any other character in the 
Bible, just because he had courage to speak out his con- 
victions and stand boldly for Christ; that little maid that 
told Naaman, or the wife of Naaman, about the prophet 
Elisha, and set two kingdoms in commotion. Her name 
has not been given us. And here is another character, 
this centurion, who shines brightly, a light in the dark 
places. I tell you, the brightest and purest pearls come 
from the darkest caverns of the ocean. And here is a 
pure gem, a diamond shining in that little town. Such 
a man as this centurion, not only in Capernaum, but in 
the Roman army. 

648 




Jesus and the Tribute Money. Mark, xii, 13-17. 



THE CENTURION AT CAPERNAUM. 65 1 

Now, if there was a class of people that the Jews de- 
spised, it was the gentiles, and the one gentile nation 
they detested the most was the Romans, unless it should 
be the Samaritans. Yet this man had lived so in Caper- 
naum that he had won their favor and esteem; he had 
commanded the respect, not only of his own soldiers, but 
of those Jews that would naturally have hated him. He 
went to Christ and wanted Christ to heal his servant, be- 
cause he loved the nation. They thought because he 
had built them a synagogue that he was one of the grand- 
est of men, and it looks as if God left all His work to go 
and heal this centurion, because he was worthy. Perhaps 
they said, "The very synagogue I occupied last Sunday 
was built by this centurion. Now, come, because he is 
worthy." Didn't do it on the ground of grace, they did 
it on the ground of his worthiness. Now, if you will just 
follow the whole scene, you will find that Christ wanted 
to teach another lesson. I remember being in Scotland 
a few years ago, and on my way to the church, a friend 
said, ' ' I hope you will not bear very hard on whisky. 
The steeple on the church where you are going to preach 
was built by a distiller, and it would hurt his feelings if 
you should say anything about whisky." That was just 
the way to keep me from saying anything about it, you 
know. I had to give my opinion about steeples that were 
built with whisky money. There are a good many who 
have an idea that distilling is all right, if they will only 
give their money to the church. That will cover a multi- 
tude of evil, and make it all right. These Jews thought 
this centurion was all right, because he had built 
then a synagogue. Now, a man may build a 
synagogue, and still be a black-hearted villain. But not 
so with this centurion; I don't think it was because he 



652 Moody's sermons. 

had built a synagogue that his name shines so bright in 
history. I will tell you what I think. He wanted Christ 
to come and heal his servant, and I suppose that servant 
was a slave. A different set of people we have now! 
Most of us, if we have a servant, and he gets sick, we just 
get him home as quickly as possible, or to some hospital. 
Perhaps we get a free bed, if we can. We get him off 
our hands, because we don't want to be bothered with a 
sick servant. We have paid them their wages, and we 
think that is the end of our responsibility. Not so with 
the centurion. It wasn't his son, nor his daughter, nor 
his wife, nor mother. It wasn't some member of his 
family, not any one that was bound to him by the tie of 
nature, but a servant, and he was dear to him. Ah, my 
dear friends, there is a lesson. I don't believe this na- 
tion has ever seen a better day to show our friendship to- 
ward those who are down . The gulf has been becoming 
deeper and darker for twenty years, and now we have a 
good opportunity to bridge the gulf. Let us follow in the 
footsteps of that good Samaritan. Let the millionaires 
look very carefully now after the men who have been 
piling up their wealth for them. Follow the footsteps of 
this good Samaritan, and see what will come out of it. 
He won the esteem of every servant he had. Do you 
tell me that if that servant was very dear to him, the 
centurion was not dear to the servant? I was in Califor- 
nia some time ago, and quite a number tried to tell me 
that the Chinaman hadn't a soul, and that a Chinaman 
wasn't capable of loving. I said, "It is utterly false. 
There is not a son or daughter of Adam on earth, that 
isn't capable of loving." Before I left California, they 
told me of a man who got a Chinaman just as he came 



THE CENTURION AT CAPERNAUM. 653 

to this country, and took him into his family and treated 
him kindly, and by-and-by the Chinaman became his 
body-servant. At last misfortune overtook his master. 
He died, and left his widow without any means of sup- 
port. The poor Chinaman bad worked hard and long, day 
and night, to get back to China. Every company that 
brings a Chinaman to this country has to sign a contract 
that they will bring him back dead or alive. Sometimes 
they scrape the flesh off the bones, and send them back 
to be buried in their own country. This man had been 
working and toiling hard to get money to go back, but 
when he found that his master had left his mistress with- 
out money, he took the thousand dollars and insisted 
upon her taking it. And yet they say a Chinaman can- 
not love! My dear friends, you cannot expect anything 
better from the world, but when you find those who pro- 
fess to be Christians, what is going to become of the 
cause of Jesus in the world? I wonder if you are look- 
ing after those who serve you. Are any of them unfor- 
tunate just now. Are they in need? Your soup-houses 
may be all right, but I wouldn't like to have a servant of 
mine go to a soup-house. Would you? I wouldn't like 
to have a man who is toiling for me degrade himself, by 
going to a house to beg for soup. 

My friend, Professor Drummond, went off into the 
heart of Africa, and when he returned he told me he be- 
lieved the Africans, as a nation, were not capable of lov- 
ing; he believed they understood a knock over the head 
better than kindness. I believe that is utterly false, and 
I believe if we walk on that line, we are never going to 
reach this world . There was a lady in New York who 
was brought up in the south, and she told me that when 



654 Moody's sermons. 

the war came on, a man went into the army, and left his 
wife with two daughters, and an old colored woman that 
had been a slave all of her life had two daughters. The 
man was killed in the army, and a good deal of his prop- 
erty was swept away. When the old colored woman 
heard about it, she refused to take her liberty because 
her mistress had nothing. The mistress soon after died, 
and then the poor old colored woman took care of the 
two daughters. When the old colored woman was dying, 
she called her daughters to her, and said, ' ' I want you 
to take good care of those two daughters. They have 
never been taught to take care of themselves; the mis- 
tress is gone, and now I am going too. When I am 
dead and gone, I want you to be careful to see that they 
don't come to want." Those two colored daughters 
cared for those two white sisters, and when they got so 
reduced that they could not get a living, they went out 
and got ten dollars. They wanted to give five of it to 
those white girls. The lady said, "I won't send it to 
them. You can if you want to. " And one of the colored 
girls said, " Why, they wouldn't take it from a nigger. I 
don't want to disgrace them by asking them to take it 
from me. " She insisted upon the lady sending it to help 
those two white girls. Now, I say those colored girls 
belonged to the nobility of heaven. You don't want to 
look down upon those people. 1 have great admiration 
for that centurion who thought a good deal of his ser- 
vant, and I tell you that kind of thing will kill out anarchy, 
kill out nihilism, sweep them from the face of the earth. 
No, it is one thing to come out here and say "amen," 
and another thing to carry it out in your home. You 
just want to watch that you don't get into the place of 



THE CENTURION AT CAPERNAUM. 655 

some Pharisee. You treat men as they should be treated, 
and see if you don't -win their esteem and respect. I was 
once reading, in history, about a heathen king. He re- 
ceived a mortal wound, and sent for his faithful body- 
servant. When the servant came, the soldier said, "Go 
tell the dead I am coming." And the servant pressed his 
knife through his heart, that he might go and tell the 
dead his master was coming after him. 

As I said before, now is our day. The workingmen are 
seeing hard times, and if there was ever a time for the 
church of God to show kindness, it is at present, if we 
haven't lost them, for they are far from the church to-day; 
they have been taught to believe that the church. doesn't 
care for them. The great mass of the workingmen of 
this country have been alienated from the church of God. 

Now is the time to look well after your servants, your 
clerks, and those whom you employ, and see if you can- 
not help them now that they are down. A little act of 
kindness will go a great deal further than the sermons 
just now. We want good Samaritans just now to go and 
pick up those men who have been slain, as it were, by 
this financial panic that is sweeping over the land. Did 
the world ever see such a day? Take up your morning 
paper. About a million dollars in the banks of New 
York, and it is a drug at one per cent. Yet men are 
starving for the want of work. Starving! May God 
deliver us. It would be a good thing for us to get on our 
backs, so that we can just look up to heaven. A man 
said to me the other night when I was talking on this 
subject, ' ' Your old gospel won't put bread into the 
mouths of the people." My friend, don't you believe it. 
That is just what will. You want to remove the cause 



656 Moody's sermons. 

of this trouble, and I believe the gospel of the Son of 
God is the only thing that will do it. If men will stop 
drinking whisky, it will buy bread for their children, 
won't it? If they will stop their gambling, don't you 
think it will put some money into bread, and the family 
will have something to eat? If they will stop this cursed 
adultery, don't you think the wives and children will be 
looked after? This man was a leper. How many of 
your servants have a disease a thousand times worse than 
the leprosy. -A kind act may turn them into the kingdom, 
of God, and it would be a grand day if we could see a 
revival of righteousness going over this land as it did in 
1857. Then there was a sweep of salvation that went 
sweeping away across the continent, and brought five 
hundred thousand into the church of God. And so out 
of this financial crash that is upon us, and out of this 
great panic, let every business man and every woman 
that has servants look well now, and see if you cannot 
win them. Don't send them off to any charitable insti- 
tution, but just take care of them yourselves. Don't go 
and blow a trumpet, and say that you have done so much 
for your servants; but do it kindly and quietly. I don't 
suppose this centurion ever thought of what he had done 
for his servants. He wanted his servant healed, and so 
he sent these men, these Jews, for Christ to heal them. 
There is a double staff. That man was full of faith, and 
full of humility. If you want to be successful in working 
for God, that is just the thing. It isn't often that the 
two meet in one man. Did you know it? But this man 
had exalted thoughts of God, and very low thoughts of 
himself. Now, I want to call your attention to a fact. 
If you find a man that has very high thoughts of himself, 



THE CENTURION AT CAPERNAUM. 657 

he will have very low thoughts of God. I met a man in 
the inquiry-room the other night, who thought he was 
the very best man in town, and he thought God was the 
most insignificant being that there ever was. This cen- 
turion was little in his own sight, he was insignificant. 
He was centurion in the Roman army, but this man never 
thought of himself. He thought that the Jews were 
better than he, so he sent them to get Christ to come and 
heal the servant. Thank God for humility and faith! 
His faith was as bold as a lion, his humility as meek as 
a dove, as meek as a lamb, and he had power. And he 
shines on and on, and has been shining for eighteen hun- 
dred years. He is going to shine on forevermore. Why? 
Because he wasn't low and mean and selfish. Now, I 
have heard all kinds of men and women praised, but there 
is one character that you never heard praised. Can you 
think of the man or woman who is never praised? Do 
you know who it is? It is a supremely selfish man or 
woman. Take A. T. Stewart, for instance. Did you ever 
hear of any one praising him? One of his clerks got sick 
and couldn't come to the store for two, or three, or ten 
weeks; his wages were cut right off; he wasn't responsi- 
ble. Who is my brother? " Am I my brother's keeper?" 
He didn't feel any responsibility for any man that helped 
him make his great fortune. Why, I was in New York 
when he was dying, and there was a sort of a jubilee all 
over the city. They were glad the old miser was going. 
They were telling stories right there in his marble palace. 
His wife might have mourned, but if she did she was 
about the only mourner he had. What a glorious op- 
portunity he had to become immortal, live forever! I 
pity these men that hold on with a tight grip to every- 



658 Moody's sermons. 

thing they have. I heard of a man once that was always 
telling his servant that he was going to do a great thing 
for him, " I am going to remember you in my will." 
Sambo got his expectations up very high. When the 
man came to die, it was found that all he had willed 
Sambo was to be buried in the family lot. That was the 
big thing, you know. Sambo said he wished he had 
given him ten dollars, and let the lot go. If you want 
to show kindness to a person, show it to them while you 
are living. I heard a man say that he didn't want peo- 
ple to throw bouquets to him after he was dead, and say, 
"There, smell them." Now, this is the time for action. 
This man acted. He was going to try to save the life 
of that servant. That is what we want to do. I have 
got so tired and sick of this splitting hairs over theology, 
and men talking about higher criticism. Man, let us go 
out and get these fallen men up. Lift them up toward 
God and heaven. We want a practical kind of Chris- 
tianity. I was in England some time ago, and they had 
a great corps of bishops, and the highest ecclesiastical 
men having a discussion which lasted for days, to see 
whether they should wear a black or white gown. Man, 
throw aside your gown, and give them the gospel. That 
is what they want. This man's servant was dying, and 
he went to work to save him. You have servants that 
are dying without God, and without hope. Don't think 
because they work for you eight or ten hours a day that 
your responsibility ends there. I believe God will hold 
you responsible. You business men can reach those men 
who are employed by you a good deal better than the 
ministers. As I said the other day, we are living in alto- 
gether different days from what our fathers did. 



THE CENTURION AT CAPERNAUM. 659 

Those old days have gone now. We treat our ser- 
vants just about as we do a sewing-machine. If they do 
their work well, all right, but if they don't, we kick 
them out. They may go to ruin, become defaulters, and 
bring a stain upon the whole family, and it is nothing to 
you. It is a good deal to you. That centurion looked 
after his servant. Look after your servants. See 
that they don't work seven days in the week. Don't 
make a man do what you don't want to do yourself. 

But my time is up. I would just like to have you take 
this centurion into your heart and see if you are like him. 
Perhaps you have built a synagogue. You may stand well 
abroad, but how do you stand at home? Do you stand 
well there? This man stood well with his servants, he 
stood well abroad, just because he was a real, true man, 
although he was a gentile and a Roman. 



OUR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 



I want to talk to-day about the overcoming life. 
When a battle is fought, we are all anxious to know who 
the victors are. In the first Epistle of John, fifth chap- 
ter, fourth verse, we read, ' ' For whosoever is born of 
God overcometh the world." That is our starting-point. 
If we are going to get victory over the world, we have got 
to get it through Christ I wouldn't .think of talking to 
unconverted men about overcoming the world, for it is 
utterly impossible. They might as well try to cut down 
the American forests with their penknives. I want to 
say to Christian people that I think a good many of us 
make this mistake; we think the battle is already fought, 
the victory already won. They have an idea that all 
they have to do is to put the oars down in the bottom of 
the boat, and the current will drift them into the ocean of 
God's eternal love, but we have got to cross the current. 
We have got to learn how to watch and fight and how to 
overcome. I think a great many Christian people make 
this mistake; they think the battle is already fought. It 
is only just commenced. The Christian life is a conflict 
and a warfare, and the quicker we find it out the better. 
Don't let any man think he is going to overcome his 
enemies without putting forth his strength with God's 

660 




The Buriat. of Sarah. Genesis, xxiii. 



OUR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 663 

power. There is not a blessing in this world that God 
has not linked Himself to. All these great and higher 
blessings God associates Himself with. When God and 
man work together, then it is that there is going to be 
victory. We are co-workers with Him. You might take 
a mill and put it forty feet above any river you have here 
in this country, and there isn't capital enough in the world 
to make that river tarn that mill; but get it down about 
forty feet, and away it works. We want to keep in mind 
that if we are going to overcome the world, we have got 
to work with Him. 

Again, in that same epistle, fourth chapter, and fourth 
verse, " Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome 
them; because greater is He that is in you than He that 
is in the world." Now, let us keep that in mind; He was 
the only man that conquered this world. With that life 
we can overcome the world, and every man has been a 
failure away from God. When Abraham got his eyes 
from God, he was weak like other men and denied his 
wife. It is a very singular thing just to notice how the 
men in the Bible, if they have fallen, have generally fallen 
on the strongest points of their characters. 

Abraham was noted for his faith, and he fell there; but 
he lost faith and denied his wife. Moses was noted for 
his meekness and humility, but he lost his temper, and 
God kept him out of the promised land. Elijah was 
noted for his power in prayer and for his courage, and he 
became a coward. Queen Jezebel scared him nearly out 
of his life. Peter was noted for his boldness, and a little 
maid scared him nearly out of his wits. And so you can 
run right on through the Scripture. Men very often fall 
on the strongest points of their characters. I suppose 



664 Moody's sermons. 

that is because we are not on the watch. If we are 
going to overcome, we have got to watch as well as to 
pray. 

Then we overcome by faith, the twentieth verse of the 
twenty-second chapter of Galatians: "I am crucified 
with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I 
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and 
gave Himself for me." The life that I now live is the 
life of faith, we stand by faith. 

Then, in the twentieth verse of the eleventh chapter 
of Romans : ' ' Well ; because of unbelief they were broken 
off, and thou standest by faith." So that we live by 
faith; we stand by faith. 

Then we read in Corinthians that " we walk by faith;" 
and in Ephesians, ' ' We fight the good fight of faith. " 
We walk by faith, not by sight. The most objectionable 
characters we meet are those who are trying to walk by 
sight, not by faith. Take Jacob; he tried to walk by 
sight; and then take his son Joseph. Joseph walked by 
faith, and see what a victorious life he had. He was a 
mighty giant just because he walked not by sight, but by 
faith. Lot walked by sight, and it led him astray. 
Abraham looked beyond, and he saw the fountain whose 
builder and maker was God. He did not fall in Sodom 
like Lot. Why? Because Abraham walked by faith, 
and Lot walked by sight. 

Now, I want to call your attention to three passages 
of Scripture; the first you will find in Genesis, third 
chapter and sixth verse, " And when the woman saw it 
was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, 
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of 



OUR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 665 

the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her 
husband with her; and he did eat." Now, there are 
three things good for food; the lust of the flesh, pleasant 
to the eye (that is the lust of the eyes), third, to make 
one wise (that is the pride of life). My friends, you will 
find all faith reaches right along on these three lines. 
Turn over into John's epistles and see what he says 
about any man leaving the world. Now, if you will turn 
over into Matthew's gospel, fourth chapter, you will read 
these words, ' ' Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into 
the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when 
He had fasted forty days and forty nights He was after- 
wards an hungered." See! the devil assailed Him on Hi* 
weak point. He was hungry. The tempter said to Him, 
" If thou be the Son of God, command these stones be 
made bread." 

But He said, " Man shall not live by bread alone, but 
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 
Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and 
sitteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, * * *." Now, 
he took Him up into the temple, that beautiful temple, 
the most beautiful thing on the earth, and the second 
Adam overcame the lust of temptation. Now notice, 
there is the tree of life. The devil took Him up into 
these mountains and showed Him all the kingdoms of 
the earth. The tree of life is a third temptation, but He 
overcame the third temptation. Now, the difference be- 
tween the two Adams is right here; the first Adam was 
overcome by the tempter, and the second Adam over- 
came the tempter. That is the question for us to settle, 
whether we will overcome the world, or let the world 
overcome us. When the war broke out we had some 



666 Moody's sermons. 

politicians who told us the war would be over in about 
ninety days, and men went into the army with a whoop. 
But you know it lasted four or five years. What was 
the trouble? We underestimated the strength of the 
enemy; and that is where we were overcome over and 
over again. I believe that a great many Christians are 
overcome because they don't know what a terrible fight 
we have. Now, it is no sign because a man is a Chris- 
tian that he is going to overcome the world, unless he 
resists temptation when it comes. Don't let any man or 
woman think all he has to do is to join the church. 
That will not save you. The question is, are you over- 
coming the world, or is the world overcoming you? Are 
you more patient than you were five years ago? Are you 
more loving than you were five years ago? Are you more 
amiable, have you more patience? If you haven't, the 
world is overcoming you, even if you are a church-mem- 
ber. That epistle that Paul wrote to Titus says that we 
are to be sound in patience, faith and charity. We have 
got Christians, a good many of them, that are good in 
spots, but mighty poor in other spots. Just a little bit 
of them seems to be saved, you know. They are not 
rounded out in their characters. It is just because we 
haven't been taught that we have a terrible foe to over- 
come. The worst enemy you have to overcome, after 

all, is yourself, When Captain T came out in 

London he was a great society man, and he became con- 
verted. After he had been a Christian some months he 
was asked, ' ' What have you found to be your greatest 
enemy since you began to be a Christian?" After a 
few minutes of deep thought, he said, " Well, I think it 
is myself. " 



OUR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 66? 

** Ah!" said the lady, " the King has taken you into 
His presence, for it is only in His presence that we are 
taught these truths." "I have had more trouble with 
D. L. Moody than with any other man who has crossed 
my path. If I can only keep him right, I don't have any 
trouble with other people." There is the trouble. A 
good many of you have trouble with your servants. Did 
you ever think that the trouble lies with you instead of 
the servants? If one member of the family is constantly 
snapping, he will have the whole family snapping. It 
is true, whether you believe it or not. You speak quick 
and snapping to people, and they will do the same to 
you. 

Now, if we are going to overcome ourselves we have 
got to begin inside. God always begins there. We have 
got enemies within and enemies without. Now, take 
appetite. Let a man that is given to strong drink (that 
xs the enemy inside) look to God for help, and He will 
give him victory over his appetite. Now, you want that 
power broken in you. Jesus Christ came to destroy the 
works of the devil, and He will take away that appetite 
if you will let Him. Here is another man (or perhaps a 
woman) that is downed by lust. The Lord will give you 
victory over that; but you have got to look to Him for 
it. You may have a bad, irritable temper. I have had 
people say to me, " Mr. Moody, how can I get control 
of my temper?" If you really want to get control, I will 
tell you how. Do you want to get it? Well, you won't 
like the medicine. Now, I will tell you so that you can 
get complete control inside of a few weeks. When a 
person treats that as a sin and confesses it, they will get 
rid of it. People look upon it as a sort of a misfortune, 



66S 



MOODY S SERMONS. 



and one lady told me she inherited it from her father and 
mother. Supposing you do. That is no excuse for you. 
When you get angry again and speak unkindly to a per- 
son, and when you realize it, you go and ask them to for- 
give you. You won't get mad with that person for the 
next twenty-four hours. You might do it in about forty- 
eight hours, but go the second time, and after you have 
done it about half-a-dozen times, you will get out of the 
business, because it kind of makes the old flesh burn. 
You just try it and see if you don't overcome that temper 
of yours. A lady said to me once, " I have got so in the 
habit of exaggerating that my friends accuse me of exag- 
gerating so that they don't understand me." She said, 
'* Can you help me? What can I do to overcome it?" 
''Well," I said, ''the next time you catch yourself lying 
go right to that party and say you have lied, and tell 
them you are sorry. Say it is a lie; stamp it out, root 
and branch; that is what you want to do." Christianity 
isn't worth a snap of your finger if it doesn't straighten 
out your characters. I have got tired of all your mere 
gush and sentiment. If people can't tell when you are 
telling the truth, there is something radically wrong, and 
you had better straighten it out right away. Now, are 
you ready to do it? You will soon get out of the business 
if you will do it. Bring yourself to it, whether you want 
to or not. Do you find some one has been offended by 
something you have done? Go right to them and tell 
them you are sorry. You say you are not to blame. 
Never mind; go right to them and tell them you are 
sorry. I have had to do it a good many times. An im- 
pulsive man like myself has to do it a good many times; 
but I sleep all the sweeter at night when I get things 



OUR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 669 

straightened out. I have sometimes had to get off the 
platform and go down and ask a man's forgiveness before 
I could go on. A Christian man ought to be a gentleman 
every time; but if he is not, and he finds he has wounded 
or hurt some one, he ought to go and straighten it out at 
once. I tell you, you will get out of that kind of busi- 
ness after you have asked forgiveness a few times, 
because you don't like to do it. You know there are a 
great many people who want just Christianity enough to 
make them respectable. They don't think about this 
overcoming life that gets the victory all the time. They 
have their blue days and their cross days, and the children 
say, " Mother is cross to-day, and you will have to be 
very careful. " We don't want any of these touchy blue 
days; these ups and downs. If we are overcoming, that 
is the effect our life is going to have on others, they 
will have confidence in our Christianity. A lady came 
to me once and said, "Mr. Moody, I wish you would 
tell me how I could become a Christian. " The tears 
were rolling down her cheeks, and she was in a very 
favorable mood, " but," she said, "I don't want to be 
one of your kind." "Well," I said, "have I got any 
peculiar kind? What is the matter with my Christian- 
ity?" " Well," she said, " my father was a doctor and 
had a large practice, and he used to get so tired that he 
used to take us to the theater. There was a large family 
of girls, and we had tickets for the theater three or four 
times a week. I suppose we were there a good deal 
oftener than we were in church. I am married to a 
lawyer, and he has a large practice. He gets so tired 
that he takes us out to the theater, and, " she said, ' ' I am 
far better acquainted with the theater and theater people 



670 Moody's sermons. 

than with the church and church people, and I don't want 
to give up the theater." " Well," I said, " did you ever 
hear me say anything about theaters? There have been 
reporters here every day for all the different papers, and 
they are giving my sermons verbatim in one paper. 
Have you ever seen anything in the sermons against the 
theaters?" She said, "Why, no." "Well," I said, "I 
have seen you in the audience every afternoon for several 
weeks and have you heard me say anything against 
theaters?" No, she hadn't. "Well," I said, "then 
what made you bring that up?" " Why, I supposed you 
didn't believe in theaters." "What made you think 
that?" "Why, "she said, "do you ever go?" "No." 
"Why don't you go?" "Why, because I have got 
something better. I would sooner go out into the street 
and eat dirt than do some of the things I used to do be- 
fore I became a Christian." " Why, " she said, " I don't 
understand." "Never mind," I said, "when Jesus 
Christ has the pre-eminence you will understand it all. 
He didn't come down here and say we shouldn't go here 
and we shouldn't go there, and lay down a lot of rules; 
but He laid down great principles. Now, He says, if 
you love Him you will take delight in pleasing Him." 
And I began to preach Christ to her. The tears started 
again. She said, "I tell you, Mr. Moody, that sermon 
yesterday afternoon just broke my heart. I admire Him 
and I want to be a Christian, but I don't want to give up 
the theaters. " I said, "Please, don't mention that again. 
I don't want to talk about theaters, I want to talk to you 
about Christ." So I took my Bible and I read to her 
about Christ. But she said again, "Mr. Moody, can I 
go to the theater if I become a Christian?" "Yes," I 



OUR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 67 1 

said, "you can go to the theater just as much as you 
like, if you are a real true, Christian." "Well, "she said, 
"I am glad you are not so narrow-minded as some." 
She felt quite relieved to think that she could go to the 
theater and be a Christian. But I said, "If you can go 
to the theater for the glory of God, keep on going, only 
be sure that you go for the glory of God. If you are a 
Christian you will be glad to do whatever will please 
Him." I really think she became a Christian that day, 
the burden had gone, there was joy; but just as she was 
leaving me at the door, she said, ' ' I am not going to 
give up the theater." In a few days she came back to 
me, and said, "Mr. Moody, I understand all about that 
theater business now. I went the other night. There 
was a large party at our house, and my husband wanted 
us to go, and we went; but when the curtain lifted, every- 
thing looked so different. I said to my husband, ' This 
is no place for me, this is horrible. I am not going to 
stay here, I am going home.' He said, ' Don't you make 
a fool of yourself. Every one has heard that you have 
been converted, and if you go out it will be all through 
fashionable society. I beg of you don't make a fool of 
yourself by getting up and going out. ' But I said, ' I 
have been making a fool of myself all of my life. ' " Now, 
the theater hadn't changed, you know, but she had got 
something better, and she was going to overcome the 
world. When Christ has the first place in your heart 
you are going to get victory over the world. If you 
want to get victory, give Christ the first place in your 
heart. Just do whatever you know will please Him. 

When I was in the old country I went to a place where 
there was more whisky distilled than in almost any other 



672 MOODY'S SERMONSo 

place in Scotland, and I opened upon whisky the best I 
knew how. A young man who had had a large distillery 
left him by his father came to me and said that if I could 
show him one passage of Scripture that condemned the 
distilling of whisky he would give it up. I said, " I could 
give you a good many." 

But I just gave him one: " All that ye do, do it for 
the glory of God." I would like to have you distill one 
hundred barrels of whisky and then pray to God to bless 
them to your fellowmen. The idea of a man praying to 
God about whisky. Now, we don't want to go anywhere 
where we cannot pray, if we are Christians — and I am 
talking to Christian people — anything that is contrary to 
that, just give it up. I think a good many people now 
want a Christianity without the cross. They want a 
cross, but they don't want to pass through Gethsemane, 
they just want to get upon the Mount of Transfiguration 
without taking up the cross. There is only one royal 
way, and that is by the way of Calvary. We have got 
to deny ourselves some of these things if we are going to 
be victorious Christians. 

There is somebody who is covetous. There is more 
said in the Bible against covetousness than against in- 
temperance. We think that a man that gets drunk is a 
horrid monster, but a covetous man will often be received 
into the church and be put into office, who is as vile and 
black in the sight of God as any drunkard. Mr. Durant 
told me he was engaged by Goodyear to defend the rub- 
ber patent and he was to have half of the money that 
came from the patent if he succeeded. One day he woke 
up to find that he was a rich man, and he said that the 
greatest struggle of his life then took place as to whether 



OUR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 673 

he would let money be his master, or he be master of 
money, whether he would be a slave to money, or make 
it a slave to him. At last he got the victory, and that is 
how Wellesley was built. 

Are you jealous? Go and do a good turn for that per- 
son you are jealous of. That is the way to cure jealousy; 
it will kill it out. It will give it a blow right over the 
head. It is a horrid monster. It is a devil; that is what 
it is. Are you jealous? Are any of you ladies jealous of 
any other lady? Make them a present; do them a good 
turn. There were two business men, merchants, and 
there was great rivalry between them. One of them was 
converted, and there was a great deal of bitter feeling be- 
tween them. The man who had been converted went to 
the minister and said, ' ' I am still jealous of that man, 
and I do not know how to overcome it." "Well," I 
said, " if a man comes into your store to buy goods, and 
you cannot supply him, just send him over to your neigh- 
bor." O, he said, he wouldn't like to do that. " Well," 
I said, (t you do it, and you will kill jealousy. " He said he 
would, and when a customer came into his store for goods 
which he did not have, he would tell him to go across the 
street to his neighbor. And by-and-by the other began 
to send his customers over to this man's store. Give it 
up. You can't just fold your arms and say, " Lord, take 
it out of me," but just go and work with Him; and that 
is the way with pride. My dear friends, we haven't 
much to be proud of. People have an idea that it is just 
the wealthy, those who have a good deal of money, who 
are proud. You go down on some of the back streets, 
and you will find that some of the very poorest are as 
proud as the richest. It is in the heart, you know. 



674 Moody's sermons. 

People that haven't any money are just as proud as those 
that have it. We have got to crush it out. It is an 
enemy. You needn't be proud of your face, for there is 
not one of you but that after ten days in the grave the 
worms would be eating your body. There is nothing to 
be proud of, is there? Let's ask God to deliver us from 
pride. 

I haven't got time to take up these outside enemies. 
Custom is an enemy. Some one says, ''I move in 
society where they have wine parties. I know it is rather 
a dangerous thing, because my son is apt to follow me. 
But I can stop just where I want to; perhaps my son 
hasn't got the same power as I have, and he may go over 
the dam. But it is the custom in the society where I 
move." Once I got into a place where I had to get up 
and leave. I was invited into a home in the old country, 
and they had a late supper, and there were seven kinds 
of liquor on the table. I am ashamed to say they were 
Christian people. A deacon urged a young lady to drink 
until her face flushed. I got up from the table and went 
out. I felt that it was no place for me. They considered 
me very rude. That was going against custom; that was 
entering a protest against such an infernal thing. Let's 
go against custom. 

It may be that we have got to overcome in business. 
Perhaps it is business morning' noon and night, and 
Sundays, too. When a man will drive like Jehu all the 
week and like a snail on Sunday, isn't there something 
wrong with him? So, my friends, that is the question 
for you and me to settle. Shall we overcome the world, 
or shall the world overcome us? Now, look at yourself. 
Are you getting the victory? Are you growing more even 



OUR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 675 

in your disposition; are you getting mastery over the 
world and the flesh; the lust of the eye; the lust of the 
flesh; the pride of the life? 

I just want to call your attention to the eight over- 
comes in Revelation, "To him that overcometh will I 
give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the 
paradise of God." 

The second overcome, " He that overcometh shall not 
be hurt of the second death." There is no second death 
for any true believer. There will be no death for us, but 
we are going to live on and on, we are going to live on 
forever. I pity any real, true Christian that is living 
under the bondage of death. You may die, but you are 
going to live beyond. You must put off the mortal to 
put on immortality. 

The third overcome, ' ' To him that overcometh will I 
give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a 
white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which 
no man knoweth save him that receiveth it." Every 
time we overcome some temptation, we get strength to 
overcome another. When Daniel overcame first, it gave 
him strength to overcome the next time. He went 
on surmounting until he stood victor in the evening of 
life. 

Fourth, ' ' He that overcometh, and keepeth My works 
unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; 
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels 
of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I re- 
ceived my Father. And I will give him the morning 
star." I honestly believe we are down here in school, in 
training; and if we cannot overcome, we are not fit for 
God's service. I don't know where the kingdom's are, 



6y6 Moody's sermons. 

but if we are to be kings and priests, we must have king- 
doms to reign over. I believe God is just taking men 
and women and training them. 

The fifth overcome, ' ' He that overcometh, the same 
shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out 
his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his 
name before My Father and before His angels. " He that 
overcomes shall not be a stranger in heaven. Do you 
suppose Jesus was a stranger in heaven? Was Daniel a 
stranger there; was that hero of faith, Joshua, was he a 
stranger in heaven? 

V Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the 
temple of My God, and he shall go no more out; and I 
will write upon him the name of My God, and the name 
of the city of My God; and I will write upon him My 
new name." Think of it! God writing His name upon 
us. "I will write upon him the name of My God." 
God looks down and says, "That is My man, My 
woman. They are fighting My battles, they are witnes- 
ses for Me." 

1 ' To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me 
in My throne even as I also overcame, and am set down 
with My Father in His throne." I tell you, you begin 
to climb now. Just take that in. Above the angels, 
above the archangels, above the seraphim, above the 
cherubim, away up, up, on to the throne with Himself, 
and there we shall be forever with Him. " To him that 
overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, 
even as I also overcame, and am set down with My 
Father in His throne." Man, it is only a few days or 
weeks, or months for some of us to overcome, and then 
all is eternity to live in. 



OUR VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 6y/ 

I think the last one is the best, " He that overcometh 
shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he 
shall be My son." 

You ask me how much I am worth to-day? I don't 
know. I don't know anything about it. I am a joint 
heir with Jesus Christ, and you must find out how much 
He is worth in order to find out my wealth. 

We are not only to be called heirs but, joint heirs, and 
all Christ has I have. All that God does for Christ, 
Christ does for me. " He that overcometh shall inherit 
all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My 
son." My friends, let us go out and overcome the world. 
Don't let any of these mean, low, contemptible things 
overcome us. If I wanted to find out whether a man or 
woman was a Christian, I wouldn't go to these ministers. 
I would go and ask the wives. I tell you, we want more 
home piety just now. If a man doesn't treat his wife 
right, I don't want to hear him talk about Christianity. 
We want a Christianity that goes into our homes and 
everyday lives. Some men's religion just makes me sick. 
They put on a whining voice and a sort of a religious 
tone, you know, and talk so sanctimoniously on Sunday 
that you would think they were wonderful saints. But 
Monday they are quite different. They put their religion 
away with their clothes, and you don't see any more of 
it until the next Sunday. You laugh, but let us look out 
that we don't belong to that class. My friends, we have 
got to have a higher type of Christianity, or the church is 
gone. It is wrong for a man or woman to profess what 
they don't possess. If you are not overcoming tempta- 
tions, the world is overcoming you. Just get on your 
knees and ask God to help you. Your ministers may 



6yS Moody's sermons. 

preach like Gabriel on Sunday, but that won't do any good 
if you live like Satan during the week in your homes. 
My dear friends, let us go to God and ask Him to search 
us. Let us ask God to wake us up, and let us not think 
that just because we are church members we are all 
right. You are all wrong if you are not getting victory 
over sin. 




Christ's Entry Into Jerusalem. Mark, xi, i-io. 



FORGIVENESS AND OBEDIENCE. 



I am going to talk about a subject that you will not like 
v^ery well, but I found out a long time ago that the medi- 
cine we don't like is the best medicine for us. If there is 
anything that throws a sort of coldness over a meeting it 
is to talk obedience. You can talk about love and 
heaven and all those things, and people get so warmed 
that they shout; but when you talk about obedience, there 
is a sort of coldness over the meeting. Like a man I 
heard of during the time of slavery. He was preaching 
with great power; he was a slave, and his master heard of 
it, and said, ' ' I understand you are preaching, and they 
tell me you are preaching with great power." " Yes," 
said the slave. "Well, now," says the master, "I will 
give you all the time you want, and you get up a ser- 
mon on the commandments and preach on the command- 
ments, and bear down on their stealing, for there is a 
great deal of stealing on the plantations." The man's 
countenance fell at once. He said he wouldn't like to 
do that; that there wasn't the warmth in it there was in 
some things, and I have always noticed those kind of 
things, when you come right down to them. People 
don't like to be told about them, you know. They don't 

681 



682 Moody's sermons. 

like anything said about it, you know, because it comes 
a little too near home. Once I heard about a young 
minister who took the place of an old pastor, and he be- 
gan to bear down pretty hard upon the people. A man 
came to him, and said, " Now, look here, young man, if 
you expect to hold this pulpit, you have got to stop that 
kind of preaching, for the people won't stand it." There 
are a good many people that are delighted when you talk 
about the sins of the patriarchs, and the sins of those 
Bible characters, but when you come here and touch 
upon the sins of this city, that is another thing. They 
will say, "I don't like his style." No; nor his matter 
either, and perhaps you won't like this subject of obedi- 
ence. But I tell you, we are told that without faith it is 
impossible to please God, and you will find that it is im- 
possible to please God without obedience. Your faith 
don't amount to much without obedience. Fifth chapter 
of Hebrews, ninth verse, "And being made perfect, He 
became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that 
obey Him." Eternal salvation unto all them that obey 
Him; not all them that feel Him, talk to Him, all those 
that say, "Lord, Lord," but those that obey Him. 
Eternal salvation means eternal safety. Did you ever 
notice all but the heart of man praises God? If you look 
right through history, you will find that everything but 
the heart of man obeys God. In the beginning God said, 
11 Let there be light, and there was light; let the waters 
bring forth, and the waters brought forth abundantly." 
And one of the proofs that Jesus Christ is God was that 
He spoke to nature, and nature obeyed Him. At one 
time He spoke to the sea, and the sea recognized and 
obeyed Him; He spoke to the fig-tree, and instantly it 



FORGIVENESS AND OBEDIENCE. 683 

withered and died. It obeyed literally and at once. As 
I told you last night, he spoke to devils, and the devils 
fled; He spoke to the grave, and the grave obeyed Him 
and gave back its dead. But when He speaks to man, 
man will not obey Him; that is why man is out of har- 
mony with God, and it will never be different until men 
learn to obey God. God wants obedience, and He will 
have it, or else there will be no harmony. In the first 
epistle of John, second chapter, seventeenth verse, we 
read, ' ' And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, 
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." 
" He that doeth the will of God abideth forever, he shall 
never die." He says in another place that if we keep 
His sayings, we shall never die. People say, "Well, 
don't you think it very unreasonable in God to punish 
Adam because he transgressed once?" Some years ago a 
superintendent telegraphed to a man not to turn the 
bridge until a special train passed. They waited and 
waited, and the man stood firm; until one man over- 
persuaded him, and he opened the bridge. He thought 
they would have time to let the boats pass, and swing 
the bridge back before the train came. But he hadn't 
got it more than opened before he heard the coming of 
the quick train. He hadn't time to get the bridge back, 
and there was a tremendous accident, and lives were lost. 
The man went out of his mind and was sent to a mad- 
house, and his cry for years, until death released him, 
was, "If I only had; if I only had." If he only had 
what? If he had only obeyed, those lives would not have 
been lost. Why, not long ago a switchman just turned 
the switch at the wrong time, and twenty men were 
hurled into eternity, and a good many maimed and hurt 



684 Moody's sermons. 

for life. He only just disobeyed once. People don't 
seem to think there is anything- in disobedience that needs 
to be punished. Men think that it is hard because He is 
going to punish disobedience. Now, if we want to get 
near God, the quickest way to get near Him is obedi- 
ence. Matthew, xii, 46, "While He yet talked to the 
people, behold, His mother and His brethren stood with- 
out desiring to speak to Him. Then one said unto Him, 
behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, 
desiring to speak to Thee. But He answered and said 
unto him that told Him, Who is My mother? And who 
are My brethren? And He stretched His hands toward 
His disciples and said, Behold My mother and My breth- 
ren, for whosoever shall do the will of My Father which 
is in heaven, the same is My brother, sister, and mother. " 

Now, if you want to get near God, just obey Him; that 
is the quickest way to get near Him. Obedience is a mat- 
ter of the heart. It isn't a matter of feeling; and the 
truest sign that we love God is that we obey Him. You 
couldn't have a better sign than that. Now, you notice. 
He takes those into the nearest communion with Himself 
that just obey Him. It isn't a matter of just feeling 01 
picking out things we like to do, but it is doing what He 
commands us to do. And the man or woman that is 
nearest to God is the man or woman that is just obeying 
Him. They are nearer than His own mother if she didn't 
obey Him. There is no friendship without obedience. 
Now notice, Adam lost everything by disobedience, and 
the second Adam gained everything by obedience. 

Again, let me call your attention to Samuel, xv, 
2, "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in 
burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of 



FORGIVENESS AND OBEDIENCE. 685 

the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and 
to hearken than the fat of rams." What does your work 
of charity amount to if you are not obedient? God 
doesn't want sacrifice if there is disobedience. When we 
bring a lamb to the altar, that is sacrifice; but if we are 
living in disobedience to God, that is no sacrifice. Sup- 
posing that little girl is mine, or we will take that little 
boy. I send that little boy to school and he plays truant. 
He says, "I don't want to go to school," and he goes off 
and fishes all day. He knows I am very fond of trout. 
He says, " I know I have been disobedient, but I can sell 
these trout for fifty cents, and I will just take them home 
to my father. It will be a great sacrifice, but it will 
please my father." Do you think that will please me? 
Not by a good deal! I want obedience, and until he 
obeys me, his sacrifice is an abomination to me. The 
sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to God and 
man. Don't let any man deceive himself, and think he 
is going to please God by giving something to Him when 
he is living in disobedience. Men say to me, " You talk 
about that gambler, but he is very good to the poor," 
and they think they are going to merit heaven because 
they are good to the poor. " God will have to remem- 
ber him." That is all right, or he thinks that it makes 
it all right. My dear friends, as long as we are living a 
disobedient life; we cannot do a thing to please God. 
That boy cannot please me until he is willing to obey, 
and do the very thing I tell him to do. It is much easier 
to bring a lamb or bullock to the altar than it is to bring 
ourselves. Did you know it? I remember hearing a 
story about an Indian who wanted to come to the Lord. 
He brought his blanket, but the Lord wouldn't have it. 



686 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

He brought his gun, his dog, his bow and arrow, but the 
Lord wouldn't have them; but at last he brought the 
poor Indian, and the Lord took him. The Lord wanted 
himself. What the Lord wants is not what you have got, 
but yourselves, and you cannot do a thing to please God 
until you surrender yourself to Him. Now, you take the 
two Sauls. They lived about one thousand years apart. 
One started out well and ended poorly, and the other 
started out poorly and ended well. The first Saul got a 
kingdom and a crown, he had a lovely family, he had 
the friendship of Samuel, the best prophet there was on 
the face of the earth; and yet he lost the friendship of 
Samuel, lost his crown, his kingdom and his life, all 
through an act of disobedience. God took the crown 
from his brow, and put another man in his place. Why? 
Because he disobeyed. Now, you take the Saul of the 
New Testament. When God called him, he wasn't dis- 
obedient to the heavenly Father, and he was given a 
heavenly kingdom. One act of obedience, one act of dis- 
obedience. The act of obedience gained all, and the act 
of disobedience lost everything. And so you will find 
right through the Scriptures this is taking place con- 
stantly. I believe the wretchedness and misery and woe 
in our American cities to-day comes from disobedience to 
God. If they won't obey God as a nation, let us begin 
individually. Let us make up our minds that we will do 
it, cost us what it will, and you will have peace and joy. 
In the eleventh chapter of Deuteronomy, twenty-sixth 
verse, we read, "Behold, I set before you this day a 
blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the command- 
ments of your Lord, which command you this day; and 
a curse if ye will not obey the commandments of your 



FORGIVENESS AND OBEDIENCE. 687 

Lord, but turn aside out of the way I command you this 
day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known." 
Isn't that enforced? A man or woman that will serve God, 
isn't the blessing of God resting upon them? There is 
great reward in keeping God's laws and statutes, but a 
great curse upon them that will disobey God. Look at 
the wives and mothers in this city that have gone right 
against the law of God and married ungodly men and 
drunkards. See what hells they are living in to-day. 
Just one act of disobedience. They are suffering tor- 
tures day by day, dying by inches. The whole country 
is more or less cursed by this disobedience. A mother 
told me up in Minnesota that she had a little child that 
took a book and threw it out of the window. She told 
him to go and pick it up. The little boy said, " I won't." 
She said, "What?" He said again, "I won't." She 
said, " You will. You go and pick up that book." He 
said he couldn't do it. She took him out, and she held 
him right to it. Dinner-time came and he hadn't picked 
up the book. She took him to dinner, and after it was 
over she took him out again; they sat there until tea- 
time. When tea-time came, she took him in and gave 
him his supper, and then took him out and kept him 
there until bed-time. The next morning she went out 
again, and kept him there until dinner-time. He found 
he was in for a life job, and he picked the book up. She 
said she never had any trouble with the child afterward. 
Mothers, if you don't make that boy obey when he is 
young, he will break your heart. You say, "Cannot 
God make him obey?" I suppose He could, but He is 
not going to. He does not work on those lines. He 
isn't going to force you against your will. He is going to 



688 Moody's sermons. 

draw you by the cords of love, but if you are not going 
to obey Him, then you are going to suffer. One of my 
sisters told me that her little boy got up one morning 
and spoke very unkindly to her. The father said, 
"What did you say, Sammy?" And the little fellow re- 
peated it. His father said, "Why, you shouldn't speak 
in that way to your mother. Go and tell her you are 
sorry, and ask her to forgive you." But he said he 
couldn't do that. " You must." He said he couldn't do 
it. His father said, " I shall punish you if you don't." 
He was one of those nervous fellows who was all a bundle 
of nerves. "Now," the father said, "if you don't go 
and ask your mother to forgive you, I will have you un- 
dressed and put to bed, and you will stay there until you 
do." He thought that would bring him, but he couldn't 
get him to say, " Mother, forgive me." He went off to 
his business, and supposed he would find the little fellow 
up when he came, but when he got home he found him 
still in bed. The father went in and sat down on the foot 
of the bed and said, " Sammy, what makes you so fool- 
ish?" The little fellow cried as if his heart would break. 
He said he did want to get up so bad, but he said he 
couldn't say it. The father said he could get up if he 
would ask his mother to forgive him, but he couldn't do 
that. He could say everything but that. I venture to 
say that there are five hundred sinners here to-day that 
reason themselves into the belief that they cannot obey 
God. God does not command you to do something you 
cannot do, and then punish you for not doing it. Well, 
my brother-in-law went down to his office, and thought 
he should surely see Sammy at tea-time; but lo, and 
behold! When he got home Sammy was still in bed. 



FORGIVENESS AND OBEDIENCE. 689 

My brother-in-law went in and reasoned with him again. 
But he couldn't ask his mother to forgive him; that was 
the one thing he couldn't say. My sister said it seemed 
like a funeral in the house, all the joy and sunshine was 
gone. He was an only son, and when night came on 
before she went to sleep she talked to him, and asked 
him just to beg her forgiveness. But he said he couldn't 
do it. After he went to sleep she went in to see him, 
and there the little tear lay on his cheek. She longed to 
kiss him, but they must break his will. She said she 
left the door open and thought he might come to her, but 
he never came. When morning came, she thought he 
would come rushing in and ask her to forgive him, but 
he never came. My brother-in-law came home the sec- 
ond day, and the boy was still in bed. The mother went 
in and sat down on the edge of the bed, and she said, 
"Now, Sammy, you just repeat after me, Mother" 
— "mother" — "forgive" — "forgive" — " me" — " me." 
And the moment he said " me," he leaped up in bed and 
said, " I have said it! I have said it! Dress me quick, 
and let me go down and tell papa. Won't he be glad?" 
Little stupid dunce! He might have said it the first 
morning; he needn't have gone to bed. You laugh, but 
that is yourself. You look into the looking-glass, and 
you will see that little boy. I have seen hundreds of 
you. Yes; you would like to obey, but you cannot. I 
don't believe a word of it. Now, this is the question for 
you to settle; the battle is fought on that one word of 
the will; the door hangs on that one hinge of the will. 
Will you obey? That is the question! It isn't a mere 
matter of sentiment, joining some church. Will you 
obey the voice of God, and do as He commands you? No 



690 Moody's sermons. 

man can obey for you any more than he can eat and 
drink for you. You must eat and drink for yourself, and 
you must obey God for yourself. There is a story told 
about Girard, one of the first millionaires this country 
ever had. A green Irishman came over to this country, 
and he had been walking round the streets of Philadel- 
phia for a long time unable to get anything to do. One 
day he went into Girard's office, and asked him if he 
couldn't give him something to do to keep soul and body 
together. Girard said, "Yes; do you see that pile of 
bricks down there?" " Yes." " Well, pile it up at the 
other end of the yard." The Irishman went to work. 
Night came on, and he had the work all done, and he 
went up into the office, touched his hat, got his pay, and 
asked if Girard had any work for him the next morning. 
Girard told him he had. The next morning he came 
along. Girard said, ' ' You go and take that pile of bricks 
and carry it back where you found it." The Irishman 
went at the work without a word. He wasn't a Yankee, 
you better believe. Night came on, he got his pay, and 
wanted to know if there would be work for him the next 
morning. Girard kept him marching up and down there 
for a number of days, until he found he was just the 
man he wanted. One day he said, " You go down and 
bid that sugar off." When the auctioneer put the sugar 
up, here was a green Irishman bidding. The people 
laughed and made sport of him, and finally it was 
knocked off to him. The auctioneer said in a gruff tone, 
"Who is going to pay for this sugar?" " Girard, sir." 
"You Girard's agent?" Mighty man then. Girard had 
found a man he could trust; God wants to find a man 
He can trust. Obedience is literal, prompt, cheerful, 



FORGIVENESS AND OBEDIENCE. 69 1 

willing action. Do what God wants you to do without 
asking any questions. When God finds such a man, I 
believe he is the mightiest power on this earth. Don't 
you think so? Do you know every man who was blessed 
while Christ was on earth was blessed by obedience? 
Ten lepers came to him, and He said, "Go and show 
yourselves to the priest." They might have said, "What 
good is that going to do us? It was the priest that sent 
us away from our families." But they said nothing, and 
went to the Son of God, and they were healed. Do 
you want to get rid of the leprosy of sin? Obey God. 
You say you don't feel like it. Did you always feel like 
going to school when you were a boy? Supposing a man 
only went to business when he felt like it; he would 
burst up in a few weeks. He said to that man, "Go to 
the pool of Siloam and wash," and as he washed he re- 
ceived his sight. See, he was blessed in the act of obe- 
dience. He said to Naaman, " Go and dip seven times 
in Jordan," and while he was dipping he was healed. 
Simple obedience. You don't need to go to any theolog- 
ical seminary to find out how to obey, need you? There 
is very little obedience nowadays. People want some- 
thing to rouse them all up; they want to hear eloquence 
and oratorical sermons. Whatsoever He says do, do it. 
Does the Lord tell me to run? Then I am to run. 
Does He say, go preach? I go preach. Whatsoever He 
tells you to do, do. But be sure He says it. Don't take 
your ideas. Go and live right at home, go and treat your 
wife and children right, pay your debts, and do some 
things of that kind. A colored man said he had seen a 
sign; he said it read, " G. P. C. ," and he got it, "Go 
preach the gospel." Another man got up and said, "No, 



692 Moody's sermons. 

that ain't it, it is go and pick cotton." If it is preach the 
gospel, go preach the gospel; and if it is pick cotton, 
then pick cotton. Some one has said, if an angel should 
be sent down here to sweep the streets, or rule an empire, 
it would be all the same to him. That is just what the 
Lord wants men to do, obey His command. If you want 
eternal salvation you can have it right here to-day. The 
terms are right here. What are they? Obedience. 
Will you obey? Now, come; you have got to settle this 
thing in your mind. Just make up your mind that you 
are going to obey. Nothing very mysterious about it. 
You needn't go to any old musty library to read up on 
obedience, need you? If He tells you to repent, then 
repent. Seek first the kingdom of God. Make that 
your first business, and I tell you what, this will be the 
grandest day you have ever seen if you make up your 
mind to obey Him. Will you do it? 




The Trial of the Faith of Abraham. Genesis, xii. 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 



I have another dry subject this afternoon. You that 
were here yesterday remember that I was talking about 
disobedience, and the disobedient people don't like to 
hear about obedience. To-day I want to talk about 
faith, and the unfaithful ones don't like to hear much 
about faith. It is a pretty dry subject. Some people 
say a will is a pretty dry thing. People don't like to 
read legal documents; but if you are mentioned in the 
will it becomes instantly very interesting reading. And 
when you come to remember that all the promises that 
have been made by God are linked to us by faith, faith 
ought to become one of the most interesting subjects in 
the whole Bible. 

Some one gave me this. I put it in my Bible, and I 
think it will do you good to put it into yours, " Faith 
gets the most; humility keeps the most; love works the 
most." " Faith gets the most!" Next Sunday afternoon 
I will talk to you about love, but now we will talk about 
faith. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and the first 
verse, we read, " Now faith is the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith is the 
dependence upon the veracity of another. Some one has 
said there are three things to saving faith — knowledge, 

69$ 



696 Moody's sermons. 

assent, and consent or the laying hold. I may know a 
thing, but if I don't act upon my knowledge, it doesn't 
help me. A man may tell me that ten thousand dollars 
have been deposited in the bank in my name, and all I 
need to do is to draw upon the bank for the money; but 
if I don't act, don't draw upon the bank for it, it doesn't 
help me a bit. I don't get any benefit from the fact 
that the money is there unless I act. A good many 
people have a sort of dead faith; they believe intellectu- 
ally that Jesus Christ can save them, that He is able, 
that He is willing to save them, but yet they are not 
saved. Why? Because they don't act upon what they 
believe. Now, the promises don't do us any good unless 
we lay hold of them. In the sixth verse of that same 
chapter we read, <l But without faith it is impossible to 
please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that 
He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently 
seek Him." Now, what the foundation is to a house, 
faith is to a true believer. You might say it is the foun- 
dation of society and everything. If you haven't any 
faith in a doctor, you don't want him in the house, you 
wouldn't commit the life of your child into his hands. If 
you lost confidence in a neighbor, you wouldn't want to 
associate with him. Faith is the foundation of all social 
intercourse; it is the foundation of all commercial inter- 
course. What has brought on this present wretched 
state of things? Want of faith. Men have lost faith in 
some portions of the government, and there is a want of 
confidence. Money is locked up; some of you have old 
stockings full tied up, and the money is not in circulation. 
You see there is a terrible lack of faith, and it is very im- 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 697 

portant that we have faith. It is the foundation of 
everything. 

Now, I want to say very emphatically that God doesn't 
ask a man or woman to believe without giving them evi- 
dence or something to believe. It isn't what some people 
say it is, "a leap into the dark," not by a good deal. 
You might as well ask a man to hear without ears, see 
without eyes, walk without feet, as to ask a man to be- 
lieve without giving him something to believe. Now, in 
the first epistle of John, fifth chapter, ninth verse, we 
read, " If we receive the witness of men, the witness of 
God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He 
has testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son 
of God hath the witness in Himself; he that believeth 
not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not 
the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the 
record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this 
life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and 

he that hath not the Son of God " Now, notice, it 

isn't a mere creed or doctrine. Doctrines are all right 
in their places, but when you put them in the place of 
faith or salvation, they become a sin. If Dr. Horton 
should ask me up to his house to dinner to-morrow, the 
street would be a very good thing to take me to his 
house, but if I didn't go into the house, I wouldn't get 
any dinner. Now, a creed is the road or street. It is 
very good as far as it goes, but if it doesn't take us to 
Chiist, it is worthless. "He that hath the Son hath 
life." Faith in a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. 
It isn't a creed about Him, but it is Himself. When 
people say they cannot believe, I always like to press 
them on that one point, to know why. Some men say 



698 Moody's sermons. 

they cannot become Christians because they are so con- 
stituted. I don't believe one solitary word of it. I don't 
believe any man is so constituted that he cannot believe 
God if he wants to. Why? Because for these six thou- 
sand years He has never broken His promises to man, 
and until they can break the word of God, man hasn't 
got an inch of ground to stand on. I met one of these 
men a good many years ago in one of our after meetings. 
He said he couldn't believe. I said, " Who?" " Well," 
he said, " I cannot believe." "Well," I said, "who?" 
He said, "I cannot believe. You don't understand me. 
I have intellectual difficulties, and I cannot believe." I 
said, "Who?" He began to color up, and he said, 
"You evidently don't understand my difficulties, sir. I 
tell you I cannot believe." And I said, "Who?" 
Finally he stammered out, " I cannot believe myself." 
I said, "Thank God, I am glad you have got that far 
along." I thought he was going to say he couldn't be- 
lieve God, and I was going to pin him down and ask him 
why. I like to catch a man in that corner. Put your finger 
on a promise that God has made to man that He hasn't 
kept, and then we will talk about not believing Him. 
When a man says he cannot believe in himself, but can 
believe in God, then he is on the right ground. I 
wouldn't thank any man to tell me that he "would try 
real hard " to believe me. If I have given no ground 
for unbelief, I say he treats me unfairly; and one man 
cannot offer another man a greater insult than to give 
him the lie. That is where all this wretchedness, misery 
and woe has come from. All the woe that has come into 
this world has come through that door. There wouldn't 
be drunkards reeling through the streets if it wasn't for 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 699 

unbelief. There wouldn't be any harlots if it wasn't for 
unbelief. Many a man has been knocked down because 
some one has told him he was a liar. Unbelief gives 
God the lie. Supposing Dr. Horton should say, ' ' I 
knew Mr. Moody when he was in California, and he told 
me a willful lie." What could I say? If you believed 
it, I wouldn't do you any good. There must be confi- 
dence between two parties before there can be any 
friendship or communion. Now, let's get up and get out 
of the pit which Adam took us into. Don't let any man 
say he cannot believe. I don't believe a word of it. 
The trouble is, people who don't know what the Bible 
says say they cannot believe it. People say, " [ don't 
see why faith is so important." Faith is very important. 
Supposing they should tell you this building was on fire, 
and you didn't have any faith in the statement and 
should sit there. What would be the result? You 
would burn up. Supposing a man is iu a river where 
there is a cataract, and I just shout, " Man, danger, 
ahead!" But he doesn't believe a word; he just goes on. 
It isn't long before his little boat is dashed to pieces, and 
he loses his life. Faith is a very important thing, isn't 
it? Supposing I hire two men to set oat trees and after 
a day or two I go out to see how they are getting along. 
I find that one man has set out a hundred trees, and the 
other only ten. I say, "Look here, what does this 
mean? That man has set out a hundred trees, and you 
have set out only ten. What does it mean?" "Yes, 
but he has cut off all the roots and just stuck the tops 
into the ground." I go to the other man and say, 
"What does this mean? Why have you planted all of 
these trees without roots?" "I don't believe in roots; 
they are of no account. My trees look just as well as 



yOO MOODY S SERMONS. 

his." But when the sun blazes upon the trees, they all 
wither and die. There are a lot of people running 
around who haven't got any roots. A good many people 
live on negations. They are always telling what they 
don't believe. I want a man to tell me what he does 
believe, not what he does not believe. And I like to 
meet a positive man. We just want to know what men 
do believe. We don't want trees that haven't any roots, 
for they will dry up when the sun blazes on them. 
There are a good many persons that are just going on in 
that way, without any foundation; they have no faith. 
People say that it doesn't make any difference what you 
believe if you are only m earnest. I heard about two 
men who went up in a balloon, and they thought they 
had cords fastened in two places. They cut one of the 
ropes, and they found that there was no other. One man 
seizes the rope that is fastened to the balloon, and the 
other seizes the rope that wasn't fastened to the balloon. 
The man that held on to the balloon was swept up into 
the heavens and dashed to pieces and the other was 
saved. What you want is a living Christ. 

Now, people say they don't know as though they have 
enough faith. Christ says, ' ' If ye have faith as a grain 
of mustard seed, you can remove mountains. " The little 
child that reaches out his hand and takes the gift has 
faith. I heard of a woman in Scotland who was intro- 
duced to a minister by another minister as a woman of 
great faith, and she instantly rebuked him. " No, I am 
a woman of little faith with a great God." She had the 
right idea. If I have got a tumbler of water, I can as 
truthfully say I have water as if I had the whole Atlantic 
ocean. 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 701 

Then people say they don't know as they have the 
right kind of faith, and they are running around asking 
ministers and reading books to see if they have the right 
kind. Any faith that will bring you to Christ is the right 
kind. Some one has said that " what the eye is to the 
body, faith is to the soul." Now, you don't dig your 
eyes out of your head to see if you have the right kind, 
but that is what you are doing with your soul. What 
you want to do is to see that you have the right kind of 
Christ. Have you got a Christ that has saved you and 
is keeping you day by day? If you have, then you have 
the right kind of faith. An Englishman once used this 
illustration: A beggar sitting by the wayside, and a 
gentleman who had gone by year after year and passed 
him a shilling, one day passes the man a shilling, and the 
beggar refused to take it. "I don't need your shilling.' 
" What?" " I don't need your shilling." " Why, how 
is that? I have passed ■ by here year after year and 
handed you a shilling. What does it mean?" And the 
beggar said, ''I am no beggar now." "What is the 
matter? What has changed your condition?" And the 
beggar replied, "Well, I was sitting here last night, as 
usual, and a man came along and gave me ,£5,000." 
"Why, how did he give it to you?" " He just put it 
into my hands." " How do you know it is good money?" 
"Because I have had it tested." "Which hand did 
you put out?" " My right hand." " How do you know 
that was the right hand?" "Why," said the beggar, 
" what do I care whether it was the right hand or not? 
I have got the money." Man, haven't you got the money? 
That is enough, isn't it? You needn't stop to discuss 
whether you have the right kind of faith. It is just as 



702 M00DYS SERMONS. 

simple as a little child. And the best illustration of 
faith is a little child. That little girl down there lives a 
life of faith. She never bothers her head where she is 
going to get her breakfast or supper from. She wears out 
a hole in her elbow; doesn't bother her a bit. She knows 
mother will get her another dress. Now, we are to have 
that same childlike faith. The nearer we can come to a 
little child, or the faith of a little child, the better we 
will please the Master. Now, people say, ' ' How does 
faith come?" I remember when I was in Chicago I used 
to urge the young men to pray for faith. You know I 
had an idea that faith was going to come down some day 
and strike me like lightning. And then wouldn't I stir 
Chicago! I used to tell the young men to pray for faith 
— faith, faith, faith, faith. "That is what we want. 
When you get faith you can do anything." I closed up 
my Bible and kept praying for faith. In the tenth chap- 
ter of Romans, seventeenth verse, one day I read, "So 
then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word 
of God." Why, it was like a flash of light out of heaven 
to my soul. I found I had been looking in the wrong 
direction for faith. And, do you know, faith has been 
growing ever since. I believe faith grows like every 
other thing. You water and feed it, and it will grow. 

If you are so busy about the Master's work, and you see 
people constantly blessed by your labors and prayers, 
how are you going to doubt? I cannot understand how 
it is that people are so full of doubts, unless it is that 
they just neglect their Bibles, as I used to. These 
promises are fulfilled almost every hour in our lives. 
Now, come! Let's get that in mind. ft Faith cometh 
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." If you 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 703 

want your faith to grow and become strong, and to be 
powerful with God and man, get acquainted with the 
Bible. 

Now, faith isn't feeling, nor it isn't sight. You are not 
to feel; that hasn't anything to do with faith. A great 
many people think they are going to work themselves 
into a certain state of feeling before they will have faith. 
As I said the other day, it wasn't the feelings of the 
slaves that made them free, but it was Abraham Lincoln's 
proclamation. A friend of mine living down the Hudson 
used to go to New York every day. A few winters ago 
his daughter came with a family of little children to 
spend the winter with him. One day scarlet fever broke 
out among them, and one of the little girls had a slight 
attack of it. She was put off upstairs in quarantine, 
away from the rest. The old grandfather used to have a 
chat with her every morning before he went to New 
York, and every night when he came home he would go 
up to see her; but he wouldn't see the other children after 
he had been with her. Once he went up, and when he 
came into the room she took him over into the corner. 
She had some of these little crackers made in the shape 
of letters, and with these she had spelled out something. 
She never said a word, but she watched him. She had 
spelled out these words, ''Grandpa, I want a box of 
paints." Never said a word. At night when he came 
home he left his overcoat with the box of paints in it, 
downstairs. She didn't seem to be much disturbed, but 
she said, " Grandpa, I thank you for the box of paints." 
She didn't see them, but she believed they were coming. 
Why, the old man laughed over it, and said he wouldn't 
have missed the box of paints for the world. I remem- 



704 Moody's sermons. 

ber once I wanted to teach my little boy faith. I put 
him on the table and said, "Jump." And the little fel- 
low began to swing his hands and get ready to jump, but 
he said, " I'se 'fraid." I said, " I will catch you. Look 
right at me and jump. I will catch you." And the little 
fellow got ready to jump again. But he looked down 
and said, " I'se 'fraid." " Didn't I tell you I would catch 
you? I won't let you fall. Just keep looking right at 
me." He got all ready again and looked down the third 
time. I said, "Didn't I tell you I would catch you?" 
Finally I caught his eye and held it, and he jumped. 
But, oh, the look of agony on his face! But I caught 
him. He thought it was fun, and I put him back on the 
table and let him jump again. That was faith. But by- 
and-by he had too much faith, and I had to run to catch 
him. But you cannot have too much faith in God. Now, 
it pleases you to have your children have faith in you, 
does it? How would you feel to have your children talk 
about their mother, and say they didn't believe in her? 
That wouldn't be very pleasing, would it? What do you 
say? Now, my friends, let us have faith in the word. 
If He has said it, that is enough. There is a passage in 
the third chapter of John, the thirty-sixth verse, that I 
would like to read, " He that believeth on the Son hath 
everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall 
not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." Now, 
let me read again, " He that believeth on the Son hath 
everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall 
not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." It 
doesn't say that you "shall have," but " hath everlasting 
life." Now, will you believe on the Son, right here? 
Right now? It says, "As he spake these words many 



THE POWER OF FAITH. 705 

believed on Him there." Why shouldn't it be so here 
this afternoon? These are the words of Jesus Christ. 
Let me read them again, " He that believeth on the Son 
hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son 
shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." 

Now, my friends, if you go out of here without salva- 
tion, there is no one to blame but your own self. There 
is nothing to hinder you from being saved but your own 
will. It isn't that you have not the power. You have it. 
If I make a statement here, you will believe it. If I 
should say that I will be here at half-past seven, you will 
believe. I may be sick; God is never sick. I may die; 
God never dies. Here is life for you by just exercising 
faith. Now, the question is, will you do it? You say 
you cannot see it. Of course you cannot. I have got 
something here in this organ. These people back here 
can see it, but you cannot. Do you believe it is here? 
Dr. Horton, you cannot see it. Do you believe it is here? 
"Yes." What makes you believe it? "Because you 
say so." Well, do you feel it? "No." Isn't that be- 
lieving when you can't see? Well, now, if I tell you 
what I have got here, will you believe it? 

There is a blind man; will you believe it? "Yes." 
There is a man that has never seen me; he is blind; 
but he hears the voice and believes. Now, I will tell 
you what it is. I have got a book. Do you believe it? 
"Yes." Well, now, there is faith for you! He cannot 
see me, but he hears my voice and believes me. It is a 
book that I think a great deal of. There are three hun- 
dred and sixty-five passages in it on love. Many a time 
I have gone off to sleep just laying my head down upon 
one of these verses. If you want your hearts to glow 



706 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

with the love of God, get a book like that. Well, now, 
will you take the book, if I will give it to you? " Yes." 
I am not going to charge you anything for it. Do you 
believe that? " Yes." You don't feel it yet, but you be- 
lieve it is coming? "Yes, I believe it is coming." Put 
out your hand. Do you feel it now? "Yes." Yes, 
because you have got it. And when you get Christ you 
will feel him. You will thank God by-and-by, perhaps, 
that you were born blind, if you were born blind. By- 
and-by when the light of eternity dawns upon you, and 
the new world opens up, oh, I would like to be there! 
Don't lock the door of your heart against Him, and say 
He cannot come in. Let Him in now. " Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 




Isaac Blessing Jacob. Genesis, xxvii. 



THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 



A gentleman came out to one of our meetings some 
time ago and said he hoped to get in that series of meet- 
ings an awakening that would last him all his life. I told 
him he might as well try to eat enough to last him all his 
life. I told him he might as well try to eat enough at 
one time, as to try to get an awakening that would last 
him all of his life. That is a mistake that people are 
making; they are running to religious meetings, and they 
think the meetings are going to do the work. But if they 
don't bring you into closer contact with the word of God, 
the whole impression will be gone in three months. In 
the one hundred and tenth psalm, David prays nine times 
that God will quicken him according to His laws, accord- 
ing to His judgments, according to His precepts, accord- 
ing to His word. Now, if you get that kind of an awaken- 
ing you have got something that is going to abide, be- 
cause God's word is going to abide forever. That is sub- 
stantial. 

Now, another thing; you need to take the whole Bible, 
and not a part of it. There are a great many people that 
are living on a few chapters and verses. They don't take 
the whole of the Scripture. I want to say before I forget 
it, that Sunday-school teachers are making a woful mis- 

709 



710 Moody's sermons. 

take if they don't take the whole Bible into their Sunday- 
school classes. I don't care how young your children are; 
let them understand it is one book, that they are not two 
books; the Old Testament and the New are all one. 
Don't let them think that the Old Testament doesn't 
come to us with the same authority as the New. It is a 
great thing for a boy or girl to know how to handle the 
Bible. What is an army good for if they don't know how 
to handle their swords? Now, I speak very strong on 
this, because [ was brought up in a Sabbath-school that 
didn't have a single Bible in it. We used to have those 
old question-books. Do you know what they are like? 
They are questions, and the answers are given just below; 
so that you don't need to study your lesson. ■ Mother had 
a Bible, it was a family Bible, but she was so afraid that 
we would tear it that she kept it in the spare room; once 
in a great while we were allowed to look at it. The 
thing that interested me most was the family record, 
when D wight was born, when father and mother were 
married. Those were the most interesting things to me, 
you know. So when I got to be a man, and my beard 
began to come out, I was bigger then than I am now, in 
my own estimation. I knew it all. O, yes! You couldn't 
tell me much. I was wiser than my grandfather, or my 
great-grandfather, or all the grandsires behind me. I 
went down to Boston from the country, and went into a 
Bible-class where there were a good many Harvard 
students. Their families belonged to the church, I sup- 
pose, and they came home to spend the Sabbath, or per- 
haps they came home every day. I was put into this 
class of young men. They handed me a Bible, and told 
me the lesson was in John. I hunted all through the 



THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 711 

Old Testament for John, but couldn't find it. I saw the 
fellows hunching one another, ''Ah, greenie, from the 
country." Now, you know that is just the time when you 
don't want to be considered green. The teacher saw my 
embarrassment and handed me his Bible, and I put my 
thumb in the place and held on. I didn't lose my place. 
I said then that if I ever got out of that scrape, I would 
never be caught there again. Why is it that so many 
young men from eighteen to twenty years cannot be 
brought into a Bible-class? Because they don't want to 
expose their ignorance. There is no place in the world 
that is so fascinating as a live Bible-class. I believe that 
we are to blame that they have been brought up in the 
Sunday-school without Bibles, and brought up with these 
quarterlies. The result is, the boys are growing up with- 
out knowing how to handle the Bible. They don't know 
where Matthew is, they don't know where the epistle of 
Ephesians is, they don't know where to find Hebrews, or 
any of the different books of the Bible. They ought to be 
taught how to handle the whole Bible, and it can be 
done by Sunday-school teachers taking the Bible into the 
cla§s and going right about it at once. You can get a 
Bible in this country for almost a song now. Sunday- 
schools are not so poor that they cannot get Bibles. 
Some time ago there came up in a large Bible-class a 
question, and they thought they would refer to the Bible, 
but they found that there was not a single one in the 
class. So they went to the pews, but could not find one 
there. Finally, they went to the pulpit and took the 
pulpit's Bible and settled the question. We are making 
wonderful progress, aren't we? Quarterlies are all right 
in their places, but if they are going to sweep the Bibles 



7 12 Moody's sermons. 

out of our Sunday-schools, I think we had better sweep 
them out. 

Now, a word about the whole Bible. I believe it is a 
master-stroke of Satan to get us to doubt any portion of 
the Bible. If he can get us to doubt just one thing in 
that book, he has accomplished a great point, and it is 
going to be the overthrow of many a man and woman's 
faith. If I had the right to cut this out of the Bible, and 
Mr. Sankey that, and Mr. H. that, it wouldn't be long 
before the whole Bible would be cut up. Once a gentle- 
man took a Bible to his minister, and said he wanted to 
show him the minister's Bible. The pastor said, " Why 
do you call it the minister's Bible? That isn't my Bible." 
" Well," said the man, " I have sat under your ministry 
for some time, and when you have thrown anything out 
I have cut it out of the Bible." And he had got all of 
the book of Job cut out, all Revelations, the Songs of 
Solomon, and about a third of the Bible was cut out. 
The minister said, " I wish you would leave that Bible 
with me." He didn't want the people to see the book in 
that condition. But the man said, "O, no! I have got 
the covers, and I am going to hold on to them." And 
off he went holding on to the covers. If you were to 
hear some men preach, you wouldn't have anything but 
the covers in a few months. People say, " What do you 
do with what you cannot understand?" I don't do any- 
thing with it. A man said to me once, " What do you 
do with what you don't understand?" " I don't do any- 
thing with it." " How do you understand it?" " I don't 
understand it." "Well, how do you interpret it?" " I 
don't interpret it." "What do you do with it?" "I 
don't do anything with it." " Don't do anything with it? 



THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 713 

Do you believe it?" "Yes, I believe it." Of course I 
do. I am glad there is a height I know nothing about in 
the old book, a length and a breadth we know nothing 
about. It makes the book all the more fascinating. I 
thank God it is beyond me. It is a pretty good proof 
that it came from God, and not from the hand of man. 
You can take a chapter and read it for three hundred and 
sixty-five days in the year, and always find something 
new in that chapter. Now, talk about believing in the 
New and Old Testament. What portion is there in the 
New Testament that you cannot find in the Old? In 
Matthew alone, there are one hundred quotations from 
the Old Testament. There are eighty-nine chapters in 
the four gospels, and there are one hundred and forty- 
two quotations taken from the Old Testament. 

There are two hundred and forty quotations in Revela- 
tions taken from the Old Testament. It is absurd for men 
to take one portion of the Bible and throw out the rest. 

Another thing, there is not a thing in that Old Testa- 
ment that men are caviling about that God did not set 
His seal to when He was down here. Men say, "You 
don't believe in the story of those five cities being de- 
stroyed by fire, Sodom and Gomorrah and those three 
others?" Certainly. They were buying and selling until 
judgment came and swept them away. " And so it shall 
be in the coming of the Son of God." Men say, " You 
don't believe in the story of Elijah being fed by that 
widow, do you?" Certainly. Christ said there were 
many widows in the days of Elijah, but Elijah was fed 
by only one widow. Why, Christ believed it, He re- 
ferred to it Himself, He set His seal to it. The Son of 
God believed it, and ' ' Shall the servant be above his 



7H MOODY S SERMONS. 

master?" Men say, " Do you believe the story about the 
Israelites being fed on manna?" Certainly. "As Moses 
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the 
Son of Man be lifted up." He connected that with His 
own cross. And then at last they look as wise as owls 
and say, ' ' You certainly don't believe in the story of 
Jonah and the whale?" Yes, I believe in that. When I 
give that up I am going to give up the resurrection. As 
you get along in life and you have perhaps as many 
friends on the other side of the river as you have on this 
side, you will get about as much comfort out of the story 
of Jonah as any other story in the Bible. May God 
help us to hold on to it! Jesus connected that with His 
own resurrection. In Matthew they said thrice, " Show 
us a sign. " And he said that the only sign should be the 
story of Jonah in the whale's belly. Christ believed that 
Jonah went into the whale's belly, and are you going to 
be His disciple, and be wiser than He? Men say, " It is 
a physical impossibility for a whale to swallow a man." 
It says, "God prepared a great fish." That is enough. 
If God created a whale, couldn't He create a fish large 
enough to swallow a man? He can create a fish large 
enough to swallow the whole world at one swallow. It 
is astonishing how men are sneering and jeering at the 
idea that God couldn't do it. A friend of mine was go- 
ing back to Scotland, and he heard a couple of these 
little modern philosophers discussing the Bible. One 
said, "The Bible says that Balaam's ass spoke. Now, 
I am a scientific man, and I have taken the pains to ex- 
amine an ass' mouth, and it is so formed that it couldn't 
speak." He was going to toss the whole Bible over be- 
cause Balaam's ass couldn't speak. My friend said he 



THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 71 5 

stood it just as long as he could, and finally he said, 
' ' Ah, man, you make an ass, and I will make him speak. " 
The idea that the God who made the ass couldn't speak 
through his mouth! Did you ever hear such stuff? And 
yet this was one of your modern philosophers! 

Then there is another class of people (and I am sorry 
that I am now talking to those in the church, some of your 
modern church-members, and some that profess to be 
Christians who say, "Of course I believe the Bible, but 
I don't believe the supernatural part." Well, now, if 
you are going to throw out that part, you might just as 
well burn it up and throw it away. There is no part of 
the Bible that doesn't teach supernatural things. You 
read that God went up from talking with Abraham. 
Now, if that didn't take place, then the man that wrote 
Genesis knew he was telling a lie, and out goes Genesis. 
You go into Exodus, and there are the ten plagues and 
Moses going through the Red sea, the water coming out 
of the rock, and all those supernatural things. Now, if 
those things were not so, the man that wrote it knew that 
he was telling a deliberate, willful lie. Out goes Exodus. 
You go into Numbers, and there is Moses making a brass 
serpent, which is put on to a pole, and the people are 
healed. If that didn't take place, out goes that book. And 
so you can go into all the books of the Old Testament, 
and there is not one that hasn't something supernatural 
in it. You cannot touch Jesus Christ anywhere that 
there is not something supernatural about Him. He 
drops down to tell the virgin that she was to be the 
mother of that child, and when Christ was born there 
came a fire down from heaven to shout His praises. 
That was all supernatural. His being warned, and go- 



7i 6 Moody's sermons. 

ing off into Egypt was supernatural. When He com- 
menced His ministry there was not a day when He was 
not doing something supernatural. One day He speaks 
to the leper, and he is made whole; one day He speaks 
to the sea, and the sea obeys Him. When He died, the 
sun refused to look upon that scene; this old world rec- 
ognized Him, and the earth reeled and rocked like a 
drunken man. The earth knew Him. That was super- 
natural. And when He burst asunder the bands of death, 
and came out of Joseph's sepulcher, that was supernatural. 
Christmas Evans, the great Welsh preacher, says, "Many 
reformations die with the reformer, but this reformer 
ever lives to carry on His reformation." Thank God, we 
don't worship a dead Jew. Do you suppose we would 
have this audience here to-day, if we were worshiping a 
dead Christ? Not by a good deal. If we worshiped a 
dead Jew, we wouldn't have been quickened and given 
life to our souls. I thank God that our Christ is a super- 
natural Christ, and this book a supernatural book, and I 
thank God that I live in a country where it is so free that 
all men can read it. 

Now, about what Christ says about Himself. He says 
the Scriptures cannot be broken. Let us keep in mind 
that the only Scriptures the apostles of Christ had was the 
Old Testament. The New Testament wasn't written. 
He means every word He says. Devil or man cannot 
break the word of God. Why, I would as soon doubt 
my own existence as to doubt that book. How any man 
can for one moment doubt the veracity of the Bible, is a 
mystery to me. 

Now, Christ says in one place, "Heaven and earth 
shall pass, but not one jot or tittle of the law shall pass 



THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. ^l 1 / 

until the law is fulfilled." Then, in another place, 
" Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall 
not pass away." Now, I will put that as the old and 
new covenant. " Not one jot or tittle of the law shall 
pass until the law shall be fulfilled," the new covenant, 
and then Christ comes and adds these words, " Heaven 
and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass 
away." Now, notice how that has been fulfilled. There 
was no shorthand reporter following- Him around taking 
down His words; there were no papers to print His 
sermons, and they wouldn't have printed the sermons if 
there had been daily papers. The whole church and all 
the religious world was against Him. I can see one of 
your modern freethinkers standing near Him, and he 
hears Christ say, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
but My word shall not pass away." I see the scornful 
look on his face as he says, " Hear that Jewish peasant 
talk! Did you ever hear such conceit, such madness? 
He says heaven and earth shall pass away, but His words 
shall not pass away." My friends, I want to ask you 
this question, have they passed away? Go and ask your 
infidels if His words have passed away. Do you know 
that the sun shines to-day on more Bibles than it has 
ever shone on before? Did you know that the American 
Bible society and the London Bible society issued fifteen 
hundred Bibles, every hour? Thank God, the Bibles are 
not going out; they are just coming in! More Bibles 
have been printed in the last eight years than in the last 
eighteen hundred years. The Bible is printed in three 
hundred and fifty different languages; it is going to the 
darkest corners of the earth. 

" Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word 



71 8 Moody's sermons. 

shall not pass away." Are His words passing away? 
No, and, thank God, they are not going to pass away. 
You and I will pass away, and the world will pass away, 
but His word is going to live and endure. It cannot be 
wiped out. God broke the bands, and is coming down 
along the ages. When they brought out the new version, 
the American committee brought it out at the same hour 
as it was put out in London. It was thrown on the 
market on Friday morning, and that would bring it out 
Friday afternoon. They couldn't send it to Chicago, be- 
cause it was so late, and so an enterprising concern set 
ninety different operators at work, and had the whole 
book telegraphed to Chicago, and brought out Sunday 
morning. Nearly nineteen hundred years after Christ 
left the world that happened, and yet men are running 
around and telling us that the old book is going out! But 
my time is up. I will take this subject up again, and 
we will go into it deeper. I have only touched it yet. 
Bring your Bibles along with you, and your pencils and 
paper. It will be a good thing to wear out your Bibles. 
I don't like these gilt edged-Bibles that look as if they 
had never been used. Don't be afraid to soil them. 
Bring them along with you. 




Mary Magdalene. Mark, xvi, 9. 



GOD IS LOVE." 



I will read a few verses from the first epistle of John, 
fourth chapter, eighth to the twenty-first verse. "He 
that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." In 
these few verses you find this sentence recorded three 
times, "God is love." I believe there are no three 
words in the Bible that Satan is more apt to blot out 
than that one sentence. I don't think that he has 
been so successful in anything in the last six thousand 
years as in making the world believe that He is not a God 
of love. I earnestly believe that this old world has swung 
out in the cold and dark and will never swing back until 
this truth dawns upon it, that God is love. Mr. Spur- 
geon one day took a train from London down into the 
country to spend a little time with a friend, and he found 
this friend had a weather vane on his barn, and on this 
weather vane were the words, " God is love." 

"What do you mean by that? Do you mean that 
God's love is as changeable as the wind?" "No, I be- 
lieve that God is love whichever way the wind blows." 
Now, it is pretty hard to make saint or sinner believe 
that. When things are running smoothly, we believe that 
God is love, but when things go wrong, we think God 
does not love us, and when things are unfortunate and 

721 



722 Moody's sermons. 

seem to be against us, then it is that we think that Christ 
has forgotten us and does not love us. Now, if I could 
just get this whole audience to believe that one sentence, 
in spite of your failings, in spite of your sins, your back- 
slidings, your lukewarmness, I tell you it will be a grand 
day for this city. Now, three times John says in these 
verses, "God is love." Not that "He may love," but 
"is love." You ask me why He loves. I don't know. 
I can't tell you. If you should ask me why the sun 
shines, I could not tell you. I suppose it shines because 
it cannot help it, because it is its nature. And I suppose 
that is the reason that God loves, because it is His nature. 
You take a man or a woman and make them believe that 
there is no one in the wide world that loves or cares for 
them, and they would rather die than live. It is that 
class that commits suicide. You wives know that if you 
haven't the love of your husbands, you cannot do any- 
thing to please them, and life becomes weary and burden- 
some to you if there is really no love. The thing we 
prize above everything else in this world is love, and that 
is the thing that God prizes above everything else. He 
wants our hearts and affections. Now, Jesus when He 
came into this world taught that the Father was love, 
and all His teachings went on to show that His Father 
was a God of love. And not only did He teach that the 
Father was love, but that He was love. He loved those 
that didn't love Him. That is the difference between 
human and divine love; we love a person as long as he is 
worthy, and then it is that we cast him off. He loves 
you in spite of what you have done and said, and what 
you are doing. 

Now, I was going to try to prove that Christ loves 



GOD IS LOVE. 723 

those that are not worthy of His love. I am going to try 
before I get through to prove that God loves every wom- 
an in this audience. If you doubt it, then I believe you 
doubt Scripture, because I think I can show that He 
loves you all. You remember the last night He was with 
His disciples, before He was betrayed, it says, ' ' Having 
loved His own which were in the world, He loved them 
unto the end." Do you remember that was the night one 
of them was going to betray Him; that one of them was 
going to deny Him, and swear that he never knew Him, 
and every one was to forsake Him? Yet on that very 
night, it says, " Having loved His own which were in 
the world, He loved them unto the end." Now, I be- 
lieve what makes eternity so awful to Judas is that he 
took away with him this fact, that Christ loved him to 
the end. When he betrayed Him with a kiss, there in 
the garden, the Master turned to him and said, "Be- 
tray est thou the Master with a kiss?" He might have 
hurled him down into perdition, but the Master kindly 
said, " Betrayest thou the Master with a kiss?" It was 
that which drove Judas to the grave of a suicide. I be- 
lieve he heard that ringing in his ears until it drove him 
clean mad. I believe that Judas remembers it until to- 
day, nothing but the love of Christ. So His love is un- 
changeable. 

There are some of you who don't speak to people 
whom you knew ten years ago. Your love is very 
changeable. There will be a falling out between now 
and 1895. You may get nearly 1895, Dut y° u wu "l f a ^ 
out before the end. You will say that there are some 
people who have betrayed you, and have been untrue to 
you. Now, that is the difference between divine and 



724 

human love. His love is unchangeable. He loved Peter 
when, Peter was denying Him. Of course He hated his 
sins, and He hated Judas' hypocrisy, but He loved them, 
and so He loves every hypocrite here to-day. He wants 
to woo you back to Himself. Then you go over to the 
forty-ninth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, and you 
read these words, " Can a woman forget her sucking 
child, that she should not have compassion on the son of 
her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget 
thee. " Now, the closest tie on earth is a mother's love 
for her child. There are a good many things that will 
separate a man from his wife, but there isn't a thing in 
the wide, wide world that will separate a true mother 
from her own child. I will admit that there are un- 
natural mothers, that there are mothers that have gone 
out of their heads, mothers that are so steeped in sin 
and iniquity that they will turn against their own chil- 
dren, but a true mother will never, never turn against 
her own child. I have talked with mothers when my 
blood boiled with indignation against the son who treated 
a mother so, and I have said, " Why don't you cast him 
onY' They have said, "Why, Mr. Moody, I love him 

still. He is my son." I was preaching for Dr. G in 

St. Louis, and when I got through he said that he 
wanted to tell me a story. There was a boy who was 
very bad, he had a very bad father; the father seemed to 
take delight in teaching the boy everything that was bad. 
Finally, the boy got so bad that the family refused to let 
their boy associate with him. But the boy was interested 
in him and watched him. The boy's father died some 
years after, and the boy went on from bad to worse until 
he was arrested for murder. When he was on trial, it 



GOD IS LOVE. 72 5 

came out that he had murdered five other people, and 
from one end of the city to the other there was a univer- 
sal cry going up against him, and during his trial they 
had to guard the court-house, the indignation was so in- 
tense. The white-haired mother got just as near her boy 
as she could, and every witness that went into the court 
and said anything against that boy seemed to hurt her 
more than the boy. When the jury brought in a verdict 
of guilty, there was a great cry sent up, but the old 
mother nearly fainted away; and when the judge pro- 
nounced the sentence of death they thought she would 
faint away. After it was over, the old mother got her 
arms around him and kissed him, and there in the court 
they had to tear him from her embrace. She went the 
length and breadth of the city trying to get men to sign 
a petition for his pardon. And then when he was hung, 
she just begged the governor to let her have the body of 
her boy that she might bury it. They say that death has 
torn down everything in this world, everything but a 
mother's love. That is stronger than death itself. The 
governor refused to let the old mother have the body, 
but she would cherish the memory of that boy as long as 
she lived. A few months after, she followed her boy, and 
when she was dying she sent word to the governor, and 
begged that her body might be laid close to her boy. 
That is a mother's love. She wasn't ashamed to have 
her grave pointed out for all time as the grave of the 
mother of the most noted criminal the state of Vermont 
ever had. And the prophet takes hold of the very idea. 
He says, "Can a mother forget her child?" But a 
mother's love is not to be compared to the love of God. 
A friend of mine was at a dinner party some years ago, 



726 Moody's sermons. 

and he was impressed with the dignified, queenly manner 
with which the lady of the house presided. After he had 
gotten into the drawing-room he remembered he had left 
something in the dining-room, and he went back to get 
it. He found that same lady sitting at the same table 
with a man that looked like a tramp. She rose and in- 
troduced him as her youngest son, and putting her loving 
arm around him, she said, ' ' He has gone far away, but 
I love him still." Is there a mother here to-day that has 
five children, and one has gone astray, and doesn't she 
love that one? Doesn't her heart yearn for him? I 
sometimes think there is a little more love because there 
is pity linked with the love. 

Is there some poor fallen woman here to-day who 
thinks she is forsaken by God and man, and whose own 
pure sisters have cast her off and ostracised her? I want 
to say to such that Jesus loves you still. God is love. 
Let the love of God sink into your hearts to-day. He 
loves you because you have sinned. Did you ever think 
what has brought out the love of God? It was Adam's 
fall. When the news reached heaven, God came down 
and sought him out. Adam ought to have gone up and 
down Eden crying, "My God, I have sinned! Where 
art thou?" But instead of that, God sought him out and 
blessed him, and told him that the seed of the woman 
should bruise the serpent's head. And so you will find 
all along through the Scriptures that He loves the world. 
There is not a person here to-day that can put her finger 
on a portion of Scripture that teaches that God hates a 
sinner, because he has sinned. It was man's calamity 
that brought out God's love. I have two sons, and if 
one of them should go astray, if I loved him it would 



GOD IS LOVE. 727 

make me angry to have him go and do wrong. What 
would I care that he had done wrong, if I didn't love him? 
It is just because I love him that my boy has gone astray. 
Dr. Arnot, one of the greatest Scotch divines, was in this 
country before he died. His mother died when he was 
a little boy only three weeks old, and there was a large 
family of Arnots. I supposed they missed the tender- 
ness and love of the mother. The Arnot children got the 
impression that their father was very stern and rigid, and 
that he had a great many laws and rules. One rule was, 
that the children should never climb trees, and when the 
neighbors found out that the Arnot children could not 
climb trees, they began to tell them about the wonderful 
things they could see from the tops of the trees. Well, 
now, you tell a boy of twelve years that he mustn't climb 
a tree, and he will get up that tree some way. And so 
the Arnot children were all the time teasing their father 
to let them climb the tree; but the old sire said, "No." 
One day he was busy reading his paper, and the boy said, 
" Father is reading his paper. Let's slip down into the 
lot and climb a tree." One of the little fellows stood on 
the top of the house to see that father did not catch 
them. When his brother got up on the first branch, he 
said, "What do you see?" "Why! I don't see any- 
thing." " Then go higher, you haven't got high enough." 
So up he went higher, and again the. little boy stretched 
and said, "Well, now, what do you see?" "I don't see 
anything." " You aren't high enough, go higher." And 
the little fellow went up as high as he could go, and down 
he came and broke his leg.^ Willie said he tried to get 
him into the house, but he couldn't do it. He had to 
tell his father all about it. He said he was scared nearly 



728 Moody's sermons. 

out of his wits. He thought his father would be very 
angry. But he ran into the house and told his father, 
and he said his father just hurled the paper, and started 
for the lot. 

When he got there, he picked the boy up in his arms, 
and brought him up to the house. Then he sent for the 
doctor. And Willie said he got a new view of that 
father. He found out the reason why that father was so 
stern. He said the moment that boy got hurt, no mother 
could have been more loving and gentle. 

My dear friends, there is not one commandment that 
has been given us which has not been for our highest and 
best interest. There isn't a commandment that hasn't 
come from the loving heart of God, and what He wants 
is to have us give up that which is going to mar our hap- 
piness in this life, and in the life to come. So don't let 
Satan believe for a moment that God doesn't love you. 
It is said when the archbishop of France was thrown into 
prison, there was a little window in the door of his cell 
in the shape of a cross, and a man in the cell next to him 
had been brought out and shot down, and he didn't know 
but that at any time they would do the same with him. 
He took a lead pencil and wrote on the top of that cross, 
"height," at the bottom, "depth;" and on either side of 
the cross "length" and "breadth." My friends, that is 
just what the cross of Jesus Christ tells us; the height, 
depth, length and breadth of God's love. How a wom- 
an in this audience can go to Calvary and sit there five 
minutes, and doubt that God is love is a mystery to me. 
I used to put God as a stern judge on the throne, and 
His Son as one that had come to appease the earth and 
make it possible for me to get access to that Father. 



GOD IS LOVE. /29 

My dear friends, since I became a father I have made 
this discovery; it took more love for God to give that 
Son to die than it did for that Son to die. Mothers, 
wouldn't you rather die than to see your own child die? 
I used to tell my mother, when I was a little boy, that I 
loved her most. And my little boy when he was about 
five years old would climb up on my knee, and put his 
arms around my neck and say, "Papa, I love you the 
most." And the little fellow thought he did. But I tell 
you, since I have become a father I have found out that 
my love for my mother wasn't anything compared with 
my love for my children. Supposing your little boy 
should see you in your coffin. He would feel grieved at 
the time, but his grief would soon wear away and be for- 
gotten. But supposing you see your little boy in the 
coffin. Would you ever forget it? Do you think this 
mother right down here would ever forget that little thing 
sitting in her lap? Never; as long as memory lasted, she 
would remember that child. I cannot tell you anything 
about the love of God. I heard a man once say that if 
we could borrow Jacob's ladder, and ask Gabriel how 
much God loved, he would say, " God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life." Now, my friends, let the love of God into your 
heart. Don't lock your heart against it, but let the love 
of God come in just now, this very minute. 

I see some children have come in. Let me tell them a 
story. When the gold fever broke out in 1849, there was 
a man in New England who had a wife and a little boy, 
and he wanted very much to go to California. The mother 
didn't want to have him go, but he promised that as soon 



73° MOODY S SERMONS. 

as he got money he would send for her and the little boy. 
People then thought they were going to find gold and be- 
come suddenly very rich, but there were a great many 
that didn't get anything. This man wasn't so prosper- 
ous as he thought he was going to be, and when his letters 
came there was no check to take them to California. But 
one beautiful day the long-looked-for letter came, and 
they were to go to New York, and take a beautiful Pacific 
steamer, and the man was to go down to meet them. 
After they had been out to sea a few days, all at once 
they heard on board that awful cry that is horrible to 
any one on water, "Fire! Fire!" They set the pumps 
to work, and did everything they could, but the fire 
gained upon them, and at last the captain gave the ship 
up. He ordered the lifeboats lowered, but there were 
not enough to take them on board. Among others were 
this mother and her little boy. The last lifeboat was 
pushing away, and she knew it was her last chance, and 
she asked them to take her and her little boy. But they 
said, " No, if we take them in we will all lose our lives. 
We can only take one of them." So they shouted back 
that they could take one. What did the mother do? 
Did she leave her little boy and get into the lifeboat her- 
self? Ah, no. No mother would do that. No, she just 
took her boy to her bosom and gave him a good hug and 
kiss, and dropped him into the lifeboat. But just before 
the boat left, she said, " My boy, if you live to see your 
father, tell him I died for you." Now, I want to ask 
these children in this audience this question, what would 
you say if that boy when he grew to be a young man 
should speak contemptuously of that mother? 

Christ made bare His arm, and left the bosom of the 



GOD IS LOVE. 731 

Father and stooped from yonder throne to come down 
here to tell the world that He loved them, and all He 
wants in return is love. Make up your minds to-day that 
you are going to love Him because He loves you. Don't 
let any one think he cannot begin now. You can begin 
this very minute if you will. Let Him in this very hour. 
In Revelation it says, " Unto Him that loved and washed 
us." " Unto Him that loved" us, and then washed us. 
He just loved us in our sins, and saved us from our sins. 
I was in Philadelphia preaching a little while after little 
Charlie Ross was stolen. I think you mothers will re- 
member what an intense excitement there was in 1875. 
On the outskirts of Philadelphia, little Charlie Ross was 
one day playing with an older brother, and a man en- 
ticed them to go off and get some candy. The older boy 
was left in the woods, and little Charlie was taken away. 
You remember how intensely this country was excited 
over it. When I went to Philadelphia, Charlie's mother 
used to come to the meetings to see if some one came in 
with her boy. Shortly after that I went to New York, 
and some of her friends wanted me to keep a good look- 
out. That is a mother's love. Men were sent off into 
Japan, France, all through Great Britain to find that boy. 
The last I heard of Mrs. Ross she still hoped her boy 
was going to be found. Now, just let me use that mother 
as an illustration Supposing she sits here to-day, she 
is still looking for that long-lost boy. She comes into 
the choir to-night in hopes that he may come in among 
the men. She just keeps watching, and she looks at 
this one and that one, but she does not see her boy. By- 
and-by the door opens, and a man comes up the aisle 
looking for a seat. All at once Mrs. Ross sees her long- 



732 Moody's sermons. 

lost Charlie. His clothes are ragged, he hasn't a decent 
thing about him, his hair hasn't been combed for weeks, 
and he looks very repulsive to the audience. But Mrs. 
Ross sees her Charlie, her long-lost boy, and what does 
she do? I tell you, you would see a sight in this hall. 
She wouldn't wait until I got through with my sermon. 
She would get that boy into her arms, and hug and kiss 
him, and then she would take him and have him cleaned 
and give him a new suit of clothes. My dear friends, it 
is but a faint illustration. Christ loves you in spite of 
your sins. If there is any one here guilty of adultery, 
Christ loves you, and will forgive you. He will love you 
right on all through your life. My dear friends, don't 
spurn the love of God whatever you do. If you want 
power, Christ will give it to you. Now, just pray that 
we may all love Him. 




The Angel at the Sepulcher. Matthew, xxviii, 1-7. 



THE BEST WAY TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 



There is no book after all that will draw people like 
the Bible. One of the professors of the Chicago uni- 
versity gave some lectures on the book of Job, and there 
was no building large enough to hold the people. If it 
only has a chance to speak for itself, it will interest the 
people. I don't know where I got hold of some of the 
things I am going to give you to-day, but I will give 
them to you, and you find oat the author if you can. 
Sometimes a man will take my Bible and return it to 
me with a good many little things noted in it. Some 
time ago. a man wanted to take my Bible home to get a 
few things out of it and when it came back I found this 
noted in it, " Justification, a change of state, a new 
standing before God; repentance, a change of mind, a 
new mind about God; regeneration, a change of nature, 
a new heart from God; conversion, a change of life, a 
new life for God; adoption, a change of family, a new 
relationship toward God; sanctification, change of ser- 
vice, separation to God; sanctification, a new condition 
with God." In the same handwriting I found these 
lines, " Jesus — only the light of heaven is the face of 
Jesus; the joy of heaven is the presence of Jesus; the 

735 



736 Moody's sermons. 

melody of heaven is the name of Jesus; the harmony 
of heaven is the presence of Jesus; the theme of heaven 
is the work of Jesus; the employment of heaven is the 
service of Jesus; the fullness of heaven is Jesus Himself; 
the duration of heaven is the eternity of Jesus." Sanc- 
tification is glorification commenced. Glorification is 
sanctification completed. 

Now, I think these things are worth knowing. It is 
a good thing to carry your Bible and your pencil along 
with you. A friend of mine was in Edinburgh and he 
heard one of the leading Scotch Presbyterian ministers. 
He had been preaching from the text, " Every eye shall 
see Him." And he closed up by saying, "Yes, every 
eye; Adam will see Him, and when he does see Him he 
will say this is He who promised to be with me when I 
fell. Mary will see Him, and she will sing with new in- 
terest that magnificat, and I, too, shall see Him, and 
when I do see Him I will sing ' Rock of ages cleft for 
me, let me hide myself in Thee. ' ' A good way to 
close up a sermon, wasn't it? 

Now, if you hear a good sermon like that, put it down 
and pass it on to some one else. People say they can- 
not say anything themselves. You can all say what 
some one else has said. Now, that is the object in 
carrying your Bibles with you. Don't get a Bible so 
good that you will be afraid to carry it, or you will soil 
it. You want a good plain-print Bible, and if you can- 
not see, get a magnifying glass; only take your Bibles 
along and see that the man preaches according to the 
word. 

Here are some more lines. I don't know where I got 
them. They are about the word itself, "A lamp to 



THE BEST WAY TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 737 

direct us; medicine to heal us; a guide to direct us; a 
bit to restrain us; a sword to defend us; fire to inflame 
us; water to wash us; salt to season us; milk to nourish 
us; a key to unlock heaven.'' That is what the Bible is 
to us, and a good deal more. 

Now, I am going to tell you something about how to 
study the Bible. It is absurd for me to tell people how 
to study the Bible, because, perhaps, my method and 
plan wouldn't suit your plan at all. Every one ought to 
learn to do it for himself. I think it is a great mistake 
that people don't learn to study it for themselves and be 
independent readers and thinkers. There are a great 
many people who know only what they hear from other 
people. They don't go and get it straight from the 
fountain. Now, it is a good thing to know how to feed 
yourself. When my little boy got so he could get his 
spoon to his mouth without spilling his food, the other 
children clapped their hands and said, "Look, papa, 
Paul can feed himself." I know some of God's children, 
forty years old, who cannot feed themselves yet. They 
have to be fed with an ecclesiastical spoon. So it is a 
good thing, my friends, to learn to feed yourselves. If 
you get to a place where they have no preaching, you 
can go right to the Bible and feed yourself, and you will 
grow then; the soul cannot grow under any other kind 
of food. If you can only get the church of God into 
the Bible, then we are going to have healthy churches 
and Christians. 

Now, I am going to give you a few hints, and perhaps 
I may hit some of you. A good way to study the Bible 
is to take one book at a time. I know some people who 
never sit down to read a book until they have time to 



738 Moody's sermons. 

read the whole of it. When they come to Leviticus or 
Numbers, or any of the other books, they read it right 
through at one sitting. They get the whole sweep of 
the book, and then they begin to study it chapter by 
chapter. It is a good thing to take one book. 

Then another good way to study the Bible is to take 
the fulfilled prophecies. I don't know anything more 
fascinating or interesting than the fulfilled prophecies of 
the Bible. Why, you know for a good many years we 
thought that Arizona and all those territories that are 
now states were a great American desert. I remember 
when I was a little boy that was taught in school, but 
when they struck that pickaxe down into the earth and 
developed about a million, they began to wake up. And 
now look at the beautiful cities that have sprung up 
there in those mountains. Do you know it is just so 
with portions of the Scriptures? There are very few 
Christians who seem to think of studying up the 
prophecies. They say it is so mysterious and there is 
question about the prophecies being fulfilled. I tell you, 
we would have better Christians, it seems to me, if we 
would take the whole Bible. 

Now, you take the four great cities that existed in the 
days when the Old Testament was written, and you will 
find that these prophecies have been fulfilled to the let- 
ter. There are two hundred prophecies in regard to 
Jesus Christ that have been fulfilled to the letter. It 
says over and over again that this and that needed to be 
done, "that the Scriptures might be fulfilled." There 
was nothing that happened to Christ, the Roman soldier 
driving that spear int3 His side, His being nailed to the 
cross, that wasn't prophesied a thousand or fifteen 



THE BEST WAY TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 739 

hundred years before. Just let me call your attention 
to a few passages regarding these cities. First, to Baby- 
lon — Isaiah, xiii, 19, "And Babylon, the glory of king- 
doms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be 
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall 
never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from 
generation to generation; neither shall the Arabians 
pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their 
fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; 
and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and 
owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. 
And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their 
desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; 
and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be 
prolonged." Jeremiah, i, I, " The word that the Lord 
spake against Babylon and against the land of the 
Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. Declare ye among 
the nations, and publish and set up a standard; publish, 
and conceal not; say, Babylon is taken, Bel is con- 
founded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are 
confounded, her images are broken in pieces. For out 
of the north there cometh a nation against her; which 
shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell there- 
in; they shall renew, they shall depart, both man and 
beast." Jeremiah, i, 13, "Because of the wrath 
of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but it shall 
be wholly desolate; every one that goeth by Babylon 
shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. " Jere- 
miah, i, 23, " How is the hammer of the whole earth 
cut asunder and broken! How is Babylon become a 
desolation among the nations! I have laid a snare for 
thee, and thou art taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not 



740 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

aware; thou art found, and also taught because thou 
hast striven against the Lord." 

A friend going through the valley of the Euphrates 
tried to get his dragoman to pitch his tent near the 
ruins. No Arabian pitches his tent there, no shepherd 
will dwell near the ruins. That prophecy has been ful- 
filled. 

Now, take Nineveh. If you will just read two verses 
in Nahum, iii, 6, 7, "And I will cast abominable filth 
upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a 
gazing-stock. And it shall come to pass, that all they 
that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, 
Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her? Whence 
shall I seek comforters for thee?" Now, how are you 
going to cover the thing up? "I will cast her abomi- 
nable filth." How are you going to cast abominable 
filth upon the thing? And yet for twenty-five hundred 
years Nineveh was buried, and an abominable filth lay 
upon her. But now they have dug up the ruins, and 
brought them to Paris and London, and you go into the 
British museum, and there is not a day except the Sab- 
bath but what you can see men from all parts of the 
world gazing upon the ruins. It is just as the prophets 
prophesied. For twenty-five hundred years Nineveh 
was buried, but it is no longer buried. 

Then look at Tyre, Ezekiel, xxvi, 3, "Therefore thus 
saith the Lord God; behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, 
and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as 
the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall 
destroy the walls of Tyrus and break down her towers; 
I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like 
the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading 



THE BEST WAY TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 74 1 

of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, 
saith the Lord God, and it shall become a spoil to the 
nations." Coffin, who was correspondent of the Boston 
Journal during the war, went round the world after the 
war was over in 1868. One night he came to the old 
ruin of Tyrus, and he said the sun was just going down, 
and he got his dragoman to pitch his tent right over by 
the ruins, over where the rocks were scraped bare, and 
he took out his Bible and read where it says, " It shall 
be a place for the spreading of nets." He said the fish- 
ermen had got done fishing and were just spreading their 
nets on the rocks of Tyrus, just as it was prophesied 
hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Now mark ye! 
When they prophesied against these great cities, they 
were like Paris and New York, in their glory, but their 
glory has gone. 

Now, you take the prophecy in regard to Jerusalem, 
Luke, xix, 41, ''And when He was come near, He be- 
held the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst 
known, 'even thou at least in this thy day, the things 
which belong unto thy peace. But now they are hid 
from thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee 
that thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and' 
compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side." 
Didn't Titus do that? Didn't the Roman emperor do 
that very thing? "And shall lay thee even with the 
ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not 
leave in thee one stone upon another; but because thou 
knowest not the time of thy visitation." I haven't time 
to dwell upon these cities, but I don't know of anything 
that floors a skeptic much quicker than to talk to him 
about the fulfilled prophecies. Now, you take the prophe- 



74 2 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

ciesof Nineveh. It says in Ezekiel, xxx, 15, " It shall 
be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself 
any more above the nations; for I will diminish them, 
that they shall no more rule over the nations." Now, 
mark ye! Nineveh was in its glory when this was 
prophesied. It was a great and mighty empire, but now 
for centuries it has been the basest of all nations. They 
haven't got a prince or king to reign over them. The 
man that is reigning over them now isn't an Egyptian, 
but he is some foreigner, and so it has been. But I 
havent time to dwell upon these cities. I wanted to 
show you how the prophecies had been fulfilled. 

Now, another good way to study the Bible is to take 
it up topically. It is a good thing to take a concord- 
ance. Alexander Cruden's is the best one, I think, be- 
cause I can carry it around with me. With that con- 
cordance I can find any passage in the Bible in about a 
minute. I was a Christian about five years before I 
ever heard of it. A skeptic once got hold of me. I 
didn't know anything about the Bible, and I tried to 
defend the Bible and Christianity. He made a quota- 
tion, and I said it wasn't in the Bible. I hunted for 
days and days. If I had had a concordance I could 
have found it at once. It is a good thing for ministers 
once in a while to tell the people about these good 
things. You can find any portion or any verse in the 
Bible by just turning to this concordance. Now, per- 
haps you ministers think it is very foolish for me to tell 
the people this, for you think they know all about it. 
A man came to me once and said, " What is that book 
you said told us all about the Bible? What did you call 
it? A concordance? Alexander concordance?" He 



THE BEST WAY TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 743 

didn't know anything about it, and he had been in the 
church twenty years. It is a good thing to take a 
concordance and look up one topic. Take up sanctifi- 
cation. I tell you what, I would rather take my con- 
cordance and get every passage on sanctification and sit 
down for four or five days and study up sanctification 
than to have all these men tell me about it; no two will 
tell you alike. Now, justification is what turned Martin 
Luther inside out. The truth dawned upon him as he 
went up those stairs in Rome. I tried to find those stairs. 
He got half way up on his knees when the truth dawned 
upon him — justification by faith. It is a good thing to 
see what the Bible says about it. Take up conversion. 
People say they don't believe in sudden conversion. 
When Mr. Sankey and myself were in one place in 
Europe a man preached a sermon against the pernicious 
sermons that we were going to preach, one of which was 
sudden conversion. He said conversion was a matter of 
time and growth, and all that. Do you know what I do 
when any man preaches against my doctrines? I go to 
the Bible and find out what it says, and if I am right I 
just give them more of the Bible. I have preached 
more on sudden conversion in that town than in any 
town I was in in my life. Give them more of the Bible. 
I would like to know how long it took the Lord to con- 
vert Zachariah. How long did it take the Lord to con- 
vert the woman whom he met at the well of Sychar? 
How long to convert that adulterous woman in the 
temple, who was caught in the very act of adultery? 
How long to convert that woman who anointed His feet 
and wiped them with the hairs of her head? Didn't she 
go ~«\th the word of God ringing in her soul, " Go in 



744 Moody's sermons. 

peace"? " O, yes," you say, " that was when He was 
here. Of course that is different." I tell you what, 
after He was glorified, they were converted still faster; 
three thousand in one day. That would scare some of 
you ministers, wouldn't it? Three thousand in one day! 
I tell you what, it would make a stir in some of your 
conservative churches. I would like to get hold of one 
of these modern philosophers who believes that there is 
no such thing as sudden conversion and have him talk 
to one of these inquirers. Here is a man who comes 
into the inquiry-meeting to-night and I try to get his 
confidence and find out what the trouble is. Finally he 
tells me he has been taking money from his employers. 
I ask him how much. Don't know; he hadn't kept 
account. I ask him if he thinks it will amount to one 
thousand dollars. ''Yes, more than that." I ask him 
if he thinks fifteen hundred dollars will cover it. He 
thinks fifteen hundred dollars will be about right. I tell 
him to go and make restitution. I suppose one of these 
modern philosophers would say, "Don't you steal more 
than one thousand dollars next year. If you stole 
fifteen hundred dollars last year, don't steal more than 
one thousand dollars this year. And the second year 
don't you steal more than five hundred dollars." In the 
course of four or five years he tells him he won't steal 
at all. " If your employer catches you at it, you tell 
him you are being converted in a new way." The Bible 
says, "Let him that stole steal no more." Right about 
face! Take another illustration. Here comes in a man, 
and he admits that he gets drunk every week. You 
know when some men get drunk they are real devils; 
they go home and knock their wives down and kick 



THE BEST WAY TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 745 

them, and they bear the marks of the bruises until they 
go down to their graves. That man comes here to- 
night, and he wants to be converted. I say, ''Don't 
you be in a hurry. I don't believe in sudden work. I 
believe in doing the work gradually. Don't you knock 
your wife down more than once a month." My, wouldn't 
it be refreshing to your wife to go a whole month with- 
out being knocked down! Once a month, only twelve 
times in a year! Wouldn't she be glad to have you con- 
verted in this new way? Only get drunk after a few 
years on the anniversary of your wedding; on Christmas; 
and then it will be effectual because it is gradual. O, 
I detest all that kind of talk. Let's go to the Bible and 
see what the old book teaches. Let us believe it, and 
go and act as if we believed it, too. I believe a man 
may come in here a thief and go out a saint. I believe 
a man can come in here as vile as hell itself and go out 
saved. What we want is to go right to the old book 
and see what it teaches. 

People say they don't believe in assurance. Very well, 
let us go to the book and see what it teaches. If it is 
our privilege to know that we have passed from death to 
life, let you and I believe it. Take that subject of faith 
that I had last Friday. As I told you before, I thought 
it was going to come to me in some mysterious, miracu- 
lous way. Read all there is in the Bible on faith, and 
you will get filled. I remember once I took up the grace 
of God. I didn't know the difference between law and 
grace. When that truth dawned upon me, I saw the 
difference. What! I studied the whole week on 
grace, and I got so filled I couldn't stay in the house. I 
said to the first man I met, "Do you know anything 



746 Moody's sermons. 

about the grace of God?" He thought I was a lunatic. 
And I just poured out for about an hour about the grace 
of God. If you want to know about these doctrines 
just take up the old doctrine of the atonement, which is 
being assailed from all quarters. Just take the Bible 
and begin at Genesis and go through to Revelation. If 
you take the atonement out of the book, you may have 
it. I don't want it. If you take that doctrine out of 
it, you take the heart. If a man doesn't believe what I 
say, let him go to the Bible and see what that says. I 
will preach on that subject to-night. I just want to 
preach on the atonement. A man came to me once and 
said, "You have changed your doctrine, haven't you? 
You don't hold on to that old doctrine of atonement any 
longer, do you?'' And I thought it was about time I 
went at it again. God helping me, I will preach on the 
atonement to-night. 

People say they want to get heavenly minded. Well, 
read about heaven and talk about it. I once preached 
on " Heaven," and after the meeting a lady came to me 
and said, ' ' Why, Mr. Moody, I didn't know there were 
so many verses in the Bible about heaven." And I 
hadn't taken one out of a hundred. She was amazed 
that there were so many verses in the Bible about 
heaven. 

Now, if you ministers will allow me, I just want to 
say a few words to you. I am net a minister, and 
therefore I can speak as a layman. I want to say that 
I honestly believe the greatest mistake we are making in 
this country is that we don't have more expository 
preaching. But there are a great many who only use 
the Bible as a text-book. They think they have got to 



THE BEST WAY TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 74/ 

give us botany, astronomy, metaphysics, and I don't 
know what else — everything but the Bible. And then 
they wonder why people read the Sunday newspapers. 
I used to think Charles Spurgeon was about as good a 
preacher as I ever knew, but I tell you what, I would 
rather hear him expound the Scriptures than listen to all 
the sermons. He excelled on this line. I believe what 
makes Scotland such a mighty power is because from 
the smallest child up every one brings his Bible to the 
church. 

Now, Dr. A. Bonar wasn't what would be called here 
in America "a star preacher," not by a good deal, and 
I am afraid some of you would think he was pretty dry. 
But if you had been in Glasgow about thirty years, you 
would have found just as many people as the building 
would accommodate (about thirteen hundred was the 
number that could be accommodated). You would have 
seen thirteen hundred people with their pencils and paper 
taking notes, and the old man would stand there and 
just expound and explain the Scriptures. Then the peo- 
ple would take and write out the notes and send them 
all through Great Britain. Some of them were sent to 
me, and I think I never had such a refreshing to my 
soul. I preached five months in Glasgow, and there 
wasn't any place in Glasgow that I didn't feel the influ- 
ence of that preacher. People would go right into the 
inquiry-meeting and go right to work. They knew their 
Bibles from front to back. I know there is a class of 
people who say that wouldn't do in this country. People 
want something oratorical. Well, that is quite true. 
There is no doubt but that there are some who want to 
hear oratorical sermons, but they forget them inside of 



748 Moody's sermons. 

twenty-four hours. It is a good thing for a minister to 
have the reputation of feeding his people. A man once 
had an artificial bee, which was so like a real bee that he 
challenged another man to tell the difference. The man 
said, "You put an artificial bee and a real bee down 
there, and I will tell the difference pretty quick." The 
man with the artificial bee had a machine that made 
just such a buzzing as the live bee, and the bee looked 
the same. They put up a drop of honey on the ground, 
and the live bee went for the honey. It is just so with 
us. There are a lot of people who profess to be 
Christians, but they are artificial, you know, and they 
don't know when you give them honey. The real bees 
go for honey every time. People can get along without 
your theories and opinions. "Thus saith the Lord.' 
That is what we want. 

Now, I was in London just before coming home this 
last time, in 1884, and a barrister had come down from 
Edinburgh. He said he went through to Glasgow a few 
weeks ago to spend Sunday, and he was fortunate 
enough to hear Andrew Bonar. He said he happened 
to be there the Sunday he had got to that part of the 
epistle of Galatians where it says that Paul went up to 
Jerusalem. He let his imagination roam. He said one 
day he could imagine they had been very busy, and they 
were tired and sat there talking, and all at once Peter 
turned to Paul and said, ' ' Paul, wouldn't you like to 
take a little walk?" And Paul said he would. So they 
went down through the streets of Jerusalem arm in arm, 
over the brook Cedron, and all at once Peter stopped 
and said, "Look, Paul, this is the very spot where He 
wrestled, and where He suffered and sweat great drops 



THE BEST WAY TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 749 

of blood. There is the very spot where John and James 
fell asleep, right there. And right here is the very spot 
where I fell asleep. I don't think I should have denied 
Him if I hadn't gone to sleep, but I was overcome with 
sleep. I remember the last thing I heard Him say be- 
fore I fell asleep was, ' Father, let this cup pass from Me 
if it is Thy will.' And when I awoke an angel stood right 
there. Right there where you are standing! An angel 
stood right there talking to Him, and I saw great drops 
of blood coming from His pores and trickle down His 
cheeks. It wasn't long before Judas came to betray 
Him. And I heard Him say to Judas so kindly, ' Be- 
trayest thou the Master with a kiss?' And then they 
bound Him and led Him away. That night when He 
was on trial I denied Him." He pictured the whole 
scene. And the next day, Peter turned again to Paul 
and said, " Wouldn't you like to take another walk with 
me to-day?" And. Paul said he would. That day they 
went to Calvary, and when they got on the hill, Peter 
said, "There, Paul, this is the very spot where He died for 
you and me. See that hole right there? That is where 
His cross stood. Right there! That believing thief 
hung right there, and the unbelieving thief right there 
on the other side. Mary Magdalene and Mary His 
mother stood right there, and I stood way on the out- 
skirts of the audience. The night before when I 
denied Him, he looked at me so lovingly that it broke 
my heart, and I couldn't bear to get near enough to 
see Him. That was the darkest hour of my life. 
I was in hopes that God would intercede and take 
Him from the cross. I kept listening, and I thought I 
would hear His voice." And he pictured the whole 



750 MOODY S SERMONS. 

scene, how they drove the spear into His side and put 
the crown of thorns on His brow, and all that took 
place. 

And the next day Peter turned to Paul again and 
asked him if he wouldn't like to take another walk. 
And Paul said he would. Again they passed down the 
streets of Jerusalem, over the brook Cedron, over 
Mount Olivet, up Bethpage, and right over on to the 
slope near Bethany. All at once Peter stopped and 
said, ' ' There, Paul, this is the last place where I ever 
saw Him. I never heard Him speak so sweetly as He 
did that day. It was right there He delivered His last 
message to us, and all at once I noticed that His feet 
didn't touch the ground. He arose and went right up 
there. All at once there came a cloud and received Him 
out of sight. I stood right here gazing up into the 
heavens, in hopes I might see Him again and hear Him 
speak. And two men dressed in white dropped down by 
our sides and stood right there and there." 

My friends, I want to ask you this question: Do you 
believe that picture is overdrawn? Do you believe Peter 
had Paul as his guest and didn't take him to Geth- 
semane, didn't take him to Calvary and Mount Olivet? 
I spent eight days in Jerusalem, and every morning I 
wanted to steal down into the garden where my Lord 
sweat those great drops of blood. Every day I climbed 
Mount Olivet and looked up into the blue sky, where 
He went to His Father. I have no doubt Peter took 
Paul out on those three walks. If there had been a man 
that could have taken me to the very spot where my 
Master sweat those great drops of blood, do you think 
I wouldn't have asked him to take me? If he could 



THE BEST WAY TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 75 1 

have told me where I could find the spot where my 
Master's feet last touched this sin-cursed earth and was 
taken up, do you think I wouldn't have had him show 
me? May God help us to-day to take Him to-day! 



WALKING WITH GOD, 



I am going to talk to-day about " Walking with God.*' 
Some have complained that I have talked so much to 
Christians since I have been here. They think I ought 
to reach the outsiders. I want to say that when we get 
the church all right, we will have no trouble with the out- 
siders. When Jacob got his face toward Bethel, then it 
was the fear of God fell on the nations all around. And 
when the church of God gets right, there will be no 
trouble about reaching the outsiders. God's line of work 
is to begin with His own people. It is said that when 
Mr. Spurgeon went up to London to preach, for six 
months he preached at the church. For some time he 
preached to the elders of the church, and when he had 
preached to them for some time, one of them thought 
he had better let them alone and get at the outsiders. 
But his preaching hadn't straightened them out, and he 
said he was going to keep at them until they were all 
right, and then he would go at the church. 

When he got the church right, then the thing began to 
grow, and it grew for thirty or forty years. When the 
church gets quickened and is all right, there can be more 
accomplished in one day than you can accomplish in 
years when the church is not all right. I believe that it 

752 




The Journey to Emmaus. Luke, xxiv, 13-32. 



WALKING WITH GOD. 755 

is the experience of most all men that have tried to do 
God's work when the church is right, then it is very easy 
to reach those that are wrong. When Adam fell, he fell 
out of a communion with God, and he didn't want to 
walk with God. What we want is to bring men back 
into fellowship and communion with God. When we 
walk with God, then we are going to have power, and 
not only with God, but with our fellow-men. Now, 
turn to Leviticus, chapter twenty-six, "Ye shall make 
you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a 
standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of 
stone in your land, to bow down unto it; for I am the 
Lord your God. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and rever- 
ence my sanctuary; I am the Lord." I believe in that 
book of Leviticus. I believe there is more of the Lord 
Jesus in that book than in any other book of the Bible. 
Now, I want to say that I never saw any one who kept 
the Sabbath and reverenced God's sanctuary who didn't 
prosper. I have never seen a man desert the house, the 
law, or the statutes of God, but that he grew lean. I 
was talking with a man here yesterday who was once a 
Christian man, and had sweet fellowship with God, but 
he began to do work seven days in the week, and now 
he has lost all fellowship with God, and he is wretched 
and miserable. I believe there are thousands to-day in 
just that condition. Leviticus, xxvi, 3, 4, ''If ye walk 
in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do 
them, then will I give you rain in due season, and the 
land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field 
shall yield their fruit." Leviticus, xxvi,- 12, "And I will 
walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be 
my people"; and in the twenty-seventh and twenty- 



756 Moody's sermons. 

eighth verses, ' ' And if ye will not for all this hearken 
unto me, but walk contrary unto me, then I will walk 
contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chas- 
tise you seven times for your sins. " Now, I don't see 
how the Lord could talk any plainer to us than that; you 
walk with me, and I will walk with you; you go con- 
trary to me, and I will go contrary to you. I believe the 
reason so many people are having such hard times now 
is because they have wandered into sin. For the last 
twenty years we have had great prosperity in this country, 
and during that time we have wandered away from God. 
We have deserted His laws and His statutes, and now 
we are having trouble all over the land. I hope that out 
of this trouble there is going to come a great blessing; 
and I believe there is going to be a great blessing. In 
the eighty-fourth psalm, eleventh verse, we read these 
words, " For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord 
will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold 
from them that walk uprightly." If we walk uprightly, 
no good thing will He withhold from us; but if we do not 
walk uprightly, we cannot claim that blessing. 

Now, turn over into Jeremiah, vi, 16, " Thus saith the 
Lord, stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old 
paths, where is the good way and walk therein, and ye 
shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not 
walk therein." Now, isn't that the language of to-day of 
hundreds of professed Christians? They don't like the 
old doctrines. They want a new gospel now, a new creed, 
new ministers; they have got itching ears to hear some- 
thing else besides this old gospel. They don't like the old 
way. Now, the way that our fathers trod, the way that 
John Wesley trod, is good enough for us. The way Martin 



WALKING WITH GOD. 757 

Luther, John Knox, and all those men trod is good 
enough for us. Now, you notice Israel got into a back- 
slidden state, and I suppose they talked as men talk now, 
against this creed. They say it is old and worn out. 
Well, it isn't as old as the sun. When you build a house, 
I wouldn't have any windows in to let that old sun in, 
for it is worn out long ago. Jeremiah, vi, 17, 18, 19, 
"Also I set watchmen over you, saying, hearken unto 
the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not 
hearken. Therefore, hear ye nations, and know, O con- 
gregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth; behold 
I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their 
thoughts, because they have hearkened not unto My 
words, nor to My law, but rejected it." Now, notice, 
they said they would not walk in the old way. They 
cast God and His laws aside. Jeremiah is put in prison 
because he had prophesied against them, and Nebuchad- 
nezzar came and took him and all his city, and then dug 
out Jeremiah's eyes and bound him in fetters of brass, 
and he died in prison. Old men were taken down into 
Babylon and put into captivity, and kept there for seventy 
years, because they walked contrary to the Lord. 

Now, let me turn to the New Testament. I haven't 
got time to go along with the old. Turn over to the 
second book of Corinthians, vi, 14-18: "Be ye not un- 
equally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellow- 
ship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And 
what communion hath light with darkness? And what 
concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he 
that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement 
hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the 
temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell 



758 Moody's sermons. 

in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and 
they shall be My people. Wherefore come out from 
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and 
touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and 
will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and 
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Now, I don't 
know of any portion of Scripture that is more ignored to- 
day than that portion. What is the result? You see 
wreck after wreck all over the country, because people 
have paid no regard to that law. Men will go into 
partnership with the most ungodly men, because they 
can make money faster. They will go into lodges and 
clubs, and yoke themselves with the ungodly, and then 
the ungodly will vote to do some disreputable thing. A 
Christian man went into a club some time ago. They 
had about one hundred members in the club, and the 
question came up whether or not they should go on a 
Sabbath excursion. The unbelievers outvoted the 
Christians. Every Christian man was party to it in that 
club. Wasn't he? What were they there for? A man 
came to me in one of these cities, and he was in great 
distress. He was a banker and a prominent Christian 
man, but he had two partners, and they had outvoted 
him to do a very disreputable thing. He said, " Here is 
my Christian character compromised." I asked him how 
long it was since he had gone into partnership. He told 
me a number of years ago. I said, "After you became 
a Christian, you took those men into partnership with 
you?" He said, "Yes, I had to do that in order to make 
money." He said he was going to do good with the 
money. I told him he had tied himself with two un- 
godly men, and he was going to suffer. And he did 



WALKING WITH GOD. 759 

suffer. To-day his testimony is gone, and his influence 
has all been swept away, because he was yoked with two 
godless men. Now, I am going to come a little nearer 
home. Some men went into freemasonry, and they 
voted because there were Jews in the lodge that they 
wouldn't have the New Testament. That is a nice place 
for Christian men to be in! They wouldn't have the 
New Testament, because they wanted the Jews. Now, 
I will come still nearer home. I know you will get 
angry, some of you, but never mind. Don't get up and 
go out. Just stick to it, and let me have a chance at you. 
"Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." 
My dear friends, what we want is to draw a line between 
the church and the world. If you want real peace and 
rest to your soul, just keep separate from the world. 1 
remember when I was a boy up in Northfield, right near 
the old red school-house there was an apple-tree that bore 
the earliest apples of any tree in town. They had a law 
in that town that fruit on a tree overhanging the street 
belonged to the public, and any fruit on the other side of 
the fence belonged to the property-holders. Half that 
apple-tree was over in the street, and it got more old 
brooms and brickbats and handles than any other tree in 
town. We boys used to watch to see when an apple was 
getting red. I never got a ripe apple from that tree in 
my life, and I don't believe any one else ever did. You 
never went by that tree that you didn't see a lot of 
broom-handles and clubs up there. Well, now, you take 
a lot of Christians, and they want to live right on the 
line, with one foot in the world and one foot in the 
church. They get more clubs than any one else, you 
know. The world clubs them. They say, " I don't be- 



760 Moody's sermons. 

lieve in that man's religion." Why, if you were sick 
they are the last men you would send for to help and 
comfort you. And the church clubs them. They get 
clubs both sides. Now, it is a good deal better to keep 
just as far from the line as you can if you want power. 
The man that has the most power is a separate man. 
Some of you look cross; you don't like it. Are you get- 
ting cross? The reason you look cross is because I have 
hit you. Well, that is what I am here for. The man 
that is living a worldly life ought to feel cross, because 
he hasn't found in the Christian religion what he ex- 
pected to find. But you come clean out. I have often 
said to young people who are converted, " Stay in the 
world, or get clean out of it. Don't try to serve both 
worlds, because you can't do it." "O, well!" they say, 
' ' don't be so narrow-minded. Don't be so bigoted. Don't 
be so puritanical. You will lose your influence if you 
do." I would like to ask this question: Who had the 
most influence in Sodom, Abraham who was out of it, 
or Lot, who was in it? I tell you, you have got to be 
outside the world if you are going to protest against it. 
The mirth that cheers and makes the world happy will 
freeze a Christian. The kiss of Judas wounded the heart 
of the Son of God a good deal more than the Roman 
spear did. The wife that lets down the standard in order 
to reach her husband always loses ground. I have heard 
of wives who have made a bargain with their husbands 
that they would go to theaters with them, if the husbands 
would go to church with them. The wife goes against 
her conscience to the theater, and he doesn't have half 
the respect for her that he would have had if she had 
stood firm. Is it right? That is the question. If it is 



WALKING WITH GOD. 76 1 

right, go into the world. If not, keep out of it. But you 
say, "Well, my husband is very bitter." Very well, let 
him be bitter. You will win him if you take a high 
stand and just walk in fellowship with God. Bat if you 
just come down to his level, you will lose your testimony 
and influence. 

Now, let me turn to a passage that perhaps you are all 
familiar with, Numbers, xiv, 4, 7: ''And the mixed 
multitude that was among them fell a lusting; and the 
children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall 
give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we 
did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, 
and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; but now 
our souls are dried away. There is nothing at all, be- 
sides this manna, before our eyes." Think of that! They 
remembered the onions and the leeks, and the garlic, but 
they forgot the old taskmasters with their whips, making 
the bricks without straw, the hard, bitter bondage, but 
they did remember the onions and leeks and the garlic. 
Now, what caused it? The mixed multitude; and when 
you see a Christian minister making the ungodly people 
in his congregation his society, look out for him. When 
you see a man or woman in your church that would 
rather be with the ungodly than with God's people, look 
out for their piety. It isn't skin deep. It is a sham. 
When you see a young mm that will hang around dis- 
reputable places, look out for his Christianity, for it is a 
sham. If you would rather go to a place where Christ is 
sneered and jeered and scoffed at, than to go where God's 
people are, there is something radically wrong. If you 
are linked with the world and worldly things, there is 
something wrong. God gave them angel's food, manna 



/62 Moody's sermons. 

that came from heaven, and they left that manna, but 
they looked for fish, the onions, the leeks and the garlic 
of Egypt. Yes, and isn't that the condition of a good 
many now? When you see a child of God that would 
rather go to some places of amusement, and takes more 
interest in them than in God's house and God's people, 
isn't there something wrong? A friend of mine said he 
had a beautiful canary-bird, and he thought it was the 
sweetest singer they had ever had. Spring came on, and 
he felt it was a pity to keep the poor bird in the house, 
so he just put it under a tree right in front of his house. 
He said before he knew it a lot of these little English 
sparrows got under that tree (and you know they can- 
not sing, any more than I can, and I don't know one 
note from another), and went "Chutter, chutter, chutter, 
chutter." Before he knew it, that little canary had lost 
all its sweet notes. It had got into bad company. And 
so with Christians. They cannot help it. After he 
found out that he had made a mistake, he took the bird 
into the house, and it just kept up that " Chutter, chut- 
ter, chutter, chutter." He said he bought another bird, 
but the canary nearly ruined it. He said that bird never 
got back its sweet notes. Now, don't you know lots of 
Christian people who had a beautiful testimony several 
years ago, but they have lost their witness, and all they 
do now is talk, talk, talk, talk. They don't say any- 
thing, but it is just talk, talk, talk, talk. Did you ever 
think of the yards and yards of talk that you hear that 
doesn't amount to anything? Why? Because they are 
out of communion with God, and have lost their witness. 
A Christian in the world is all right. There is no trouble 
about them. No one is saying anything against them. 



WALKING WITH GOD. 763 

You say, "Didn't Christ say He left His disciples in the 
world?" Yes, and that is the place for us until He 
calls us. 

Some time ago I was on the Spray, and it went along 
all right until they knocked a hole in it, and water began 
to come in, and the boat "began to sink. Then it was all 
wrong. The ship was made for the water, but when the 
water gets into the ship, down it goes. I think the re- 
porters of the morning papers, the moment the water 
began to come in, wanted to get out of that boat. 

There are a lot of Christians in the world about waist 
deep, and then they wonder why they haven't any power 
or influence. Man or woman, get out of the world and 
keep out of it, if you want power! Some one asked a 
Scotchman if he was on his way to heaven, and he said, 
"Ah, man! I live there." Some one asked Billy Miner 
how the world was getting on. He said he didn't know; 
he hadn't been there for twelve years. This isn't our 
home, my friends; we don't dwell here. Our citizenship 
is up there. We don't belong down here. Some of us 
have lived long enough to find that out, most of us have 
lived long enough. A good many I am speaking to this 
afternoon will be gone inside of thirty days. But don't 
let the world get hold of you. Keep it under. Let me 
read to you just a few verses about Jehoshaphat, 2 
Chronicles, xvii, 1-7: " And Jehoshaphat reigned in his 
stead and strengthened himself against Israel. And he 
placed forces in all the fenced cities of Judah, and set 
garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of 
Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken. And the 
Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the 
first ways of his father David, and sought not unto 



764 Moody's sermons. 

Baalim; but sought to the Lord God of his father, and 
walked in his commandments, and not after the doings 
of Israel. Therefore, the Lord established the kingdom 
in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat pres- 
ents; and he had riches and honor in abundance. And 
his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord; moreover 
He took away the high places and groves out of Judah." 
He was king of Judah, and he strengthened himself 
against the enemies of God. He had a great army, and 
the heavens seemed to smile upon him. Now, just turn 
over into the eighteenth chapter, first verse, "Now 
Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance, and 
joined affinity with Ahab." Down he went! I suppose 
he reasoned in this way: " If I form affinity with Ahab, 
I can, perhaps, win back Israel." He knew the edict 
had gone out against Ahab. There was Ahab, one of 
the worst men that had ever lived on earth. And yet 
Jehoshaphat, with all that light and knowledge, went 
down and formed affinity with him. What was the re- 
sult? It overthrew his dynasty. It wasn't long before 
the son went down and married Jezebel's daughter. All 
of Jehoshaphat's sons were put to death, and not only 
that, but the crown prince, his young son, was put to 
death, and the kingdom passed over to some one else. 
When the world forgets Christ, let you and I get out. 
We are identified with Him. You go down the Missis- 
sippi river, and after you drop down below Quincy, Illi- 
nois, you will find the Missouri river runs into the Mis- 
sissippi. The Mississippi is quite a clear stream, but 
by-and-by the Missouri comes, and it is very roily. For 
miles and miles these two streams run on separately, but 
after they have gone on for a few miles, it all becomes 



WALKING WITH GOD. 765 

roily. That is a picture of the world. There is a pure 
and an impure man yoked together. By-and-by the 
pure man becomes impure. "How can two walk to- 
gether, except they be agreed?" You cannot walk with 
the ungodly without conforming to them. Now, some- 
times you see a great forest when you have been riding 
on the cars. There has come a great storm and has 
torn that forest all to pieces. What is the trouble? The 
trees were just on the surface. There is a great rock and 
a little soil on it, and for years the trees have grown and 
flourished on that soil. But when the testing-time came, 
down went the tree. Why? Because there wasn't any 
depth. Now, what we want is to be rooted and grounded 
in Jesus Christ. You go down to Florida or to Cali- 
fornia, and they will tell you that the best oranges are 
where the tap-root goes down forty feet. The orange- 
tree that strikes water at ten, bears oranges that are 
considered very poor. If it strikes water at twenty, the 
oranges are fair. If it strikes water at thirty, they are 
good ; but the very best oranges are where the roots don't 
strike water until they get down to forty feet. What we 
want is Christians that are just rooted and grounded. 
Every Christian ought to be like the orange-tree. I be- 
lieve if we are growing as He would have us grow, we 
would be like orange-trees. 

But I must close. My time is up. I just want to say 
one thing more. Enoch walked with God, and God 
took him. He walked the wilderness to-day, and the 
promised land to-morrow. Abraham walked with God 
and became the friend of God, and so what Enoch, 
Noah and Abraham did, we can do if we will. It is the 
privilege of every one of us to walk with God every 



y66 Moody's sermons. 

day if we will. We can walk in the light from this 
hour on until we meet Him in glory, if we will. Let us 
unite in prayer, and let us pray that God may bring each 
one of us into fellowship with Himself. 




The Agony in the Garden. Luke, xxii. 



WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? 



Thirteenth chapter of Matthew's gospel, first nine 
verses. We have been sowing for the last thirty days. 
We have sown on all kinds of soil, bat we are not re- 
sponsible for the soil we sow on. But let the congrega- 
tion beware and be on their guard to see that they don't 
belong to the first three classes. I firmly believe that 
if there isn't real true, not only conviction, but contri- 
tion for sin, and if there isn't a straightening out of the 
past life, as far as it lies in us, then the seed will not 
take deep root, and it will not be long before many of 
those that claim to be young converts will relapse into 
their old life. But when a man or woman is thorough, 
and they do the things God commands them to do, and 
there is real true contrition, a true turning from sin to 
God, and if needs be there is true restitution, then there 
is very little falling away. I don't believe we need to 
have so many backsliders if men and women will only 
start right. 

Let me read a few verses in the fourth chapter of John: 
" Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then 
cometh the harvest? Behold, I say unto you, lift up 
your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white 
already for harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth 

769 



yyo moody s sermons. 

wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: That both 
he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice to- 
gether. And herein is that saying true, one soweth and 
another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon you 
bestowed no labor; other men labored, and ye are 
entered into their labors." 

I believe that it is literally true. I don't think any one 
need to say, "Four months, and then cometh the har- 
vest." This is about as good a harvest field as you will 
find anywhere in Christendom, right here. Now is the 
time just to move; let this be the time; let this be the 
hour; let each one of us thrust in the sickle. 

Now I come to my text, in the twelfth chapter of 
Daniel. It is the third verse, but I will read the second 
and third verses: "And many of them that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, 
and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they 
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma- 
ment; and they that turn many to righteousness as the 
stars forever and ever." These are not the words of 
some hot-headed evangelist; they are not the words of 
some young fanatic, some young man just starting out in 
life; but they are the words of an old statesman who had 
had a rich and deep experience, who had seen a great 
deal of the world's glitter, who had been in the court of 
Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar and Darius, who had seen 
a great deal of public life; and now we find the old 
statesman and prophet is about ready to go home, his 
work is about finished, about over. And he takes up 
his pen and writes these words, " And they that be wise 
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they 
that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and 



WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? 771 

ever." Now, notice how that has been fulfilled and how 
it is being fulfilled constantly. Although that statesman 
has been gone twenty-five hundred years, there never 
was a time in the history of the world when he shone so 
brightly as he does now. Not because he was premier 
of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, not because he was chief 
executive under Darius — I don't think we ever heard of 
him as a statesman, as an eminent man, as a politician 
— but it was because he lived for God. He looked be- 
yond this world and into the glory of the other. He 
lived for eternity, and how he shines to-day, and how he 
is going to shine on! Who can tell us who were the 
wise men of Babylon? Who their great geologists and 
scientists? We don't know the names of any of them. 
Who can tell us who were the great millionaires of that 
time, the leading business men of Babylon, the great 
bankers and financiers? Their names we do not know; 
they were forgotten long, long ago, ages and ages ago 
and yet this man shines on. Now, the fact is, we all 
like to shine; and I want to say that there is no true 
child of God here to-day that may not shine if he will. 

Now, we talk about the hard field. We say, " You 
know it is a very hard field here. You will find it very 
peculiar." I never yet went to a town where I wasn't 
told that it was a peculiar place. Now, that is only one 
of the devil's own arguments. Who ever had a harder 
field than this prophet? He was taken and made a 
slave; and not only a slave, but he was a Hebrew, and 
there wasn't a nation under heaven that the heathens 
detested as they did those Hebrews. This man couldn't 
speak a word of the language. All the royal court and 
every one there was against everything this man believed 



7J2 MOODY S SERMONS. 

in, and yet he went down there and began to shine, and 
he went on shining right through to his old age. Now, 
if he could work in that field that was so dark and un- 
promising, do you tell me there is any man or woman 
here who cannot work if he or she will? 

Then you say you have no influence. You can make 
an influence. No position? You can make a position. 
Where did the Lord find Moses? Back there in Horeb, 
in the desert looking after sheep. Not a very high occu- 
pation in the sight of those proud Egyptians! He had 
been there forty years, but he was just the man God 
wanted, and when God called him, He qualified him. 
And see how he has been shining all these centuries! 
He might have stayed in the Egyptian court, but he 
stepped over the crown of this world, and took up the 
cross and identified himself with the unseen God. And 
he has become immortal. Where did God find Elisha? 
Behind twelve yoke of oxen. He was not a man of let- 
ters, not a man of position in this world, but he was 
just the man God called to take Elijah's place. Where 
did God find Gideon? Thrashing. Very common kind 
of work, but the Lord God took him. Where did God 
find David? Why, when Samuel went to the house of 
Jesse to get some one to take Saul's place, they called in 
all the sons but a little boy who was taking care of 
the sheep. They thought he was too young; but that 
was the very one God wanted. That is where God found 
him. Don't talk about not having a position. God will 
give you position if you have a heart for the work. If 
you are willing to just take up the cross and follow the 
Son of God, you will have position. Where did God 
find the twelve apostles? Not in Brown university; not 



WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? 773 

in Oxford; not in Cambridge; not at Harvard, nor at Yale. 
He found them up there fishing at the sea of Galilee. 
They were not lettered men, but they did the work very 
well, and they shine pretty brightly, don't they? They 
outshone the whole of that crowd of men that looked 
down upon them. One hundred years ago Napoleon 
was a wonder to the nations. People seemed to speak 
his name with bated breath; they looked upon him as 
almost a little god; and some thought he was the Anti- 
christ. But where is his glory to-day? I was in Paris 
in 1867, and when Napoleon the Third rode through the 
streets the people went nearly wild. I made inquiries 
in regard to the excitement, and they said it was the 
young prince that had come into the exposition. Paris 
was just wild over the name of Napoleon. That was in 
1867, and only four years after that he was an exile, and 
only a little while after that he lay in his little narrow 
coffin, a coffin no larger than we shall have. And his 
body hasn't been taken back to France yet. They won't 
have it taken back. His glory is gone; but the glory of 
the fisherman of Galilee hasn't gone. They shine on, 
and are going to shine on. We have the privilege to go 
out and work. Let every man use the talent God has 
given him. Don't be mourning because you haven't 
more, but just take what you have and go to work. 

I saw a picture some years ago, and I was stupid 
enough to think I would buy it. I thought it would be 
a fine thing to have in the house. It represented some 
poor lost one just coming up out of the water on to a 
rock which had a cross on top of it. The figure had 
both arms around the cross and was saved. I suppose 
some one had a better idea of it than I did, for they 



774 Moody's sermons. 

soon got out another picture representing the same one 
coming up out of the water and putting one arm round 
the cross, and stretching out the other to save some one 
else. That was it. There are lots of Christians who 
have both arms round the cross, and they say, "I am 
safe. Let the world perish. I joined the church 
twelve years ago. " And that is all you know about their 
Christianity. I have very little sympathy with this idea 
that you have got to look up some old musty church 
record to find out whether a man or woman is a Chris- 
tian or not. I believe this -city could be turned upside 
down inside of a week, if every man would do what he 
could. Don't attempt to do some great thing, but do 
what you can. Some years ago I heard of a man who 
did something when he was seasick, and that is about 
the time when I feel as if 1 couldn't do anything. That 
is about the last place for a man to attempt to do any- 
thing for another; he is so occupied with himself. But 
this man was very sick, and all at once he heard a cry 
on deck, "Man overboard." "Poor fellow, I wish I 
was well, and then perhaps I could do something to save 
him." It was dark, and all at once the thought occurred 
to him, "If I hold the light at the porthole it may do 
some good." So he put a lantern at the porthole, and 
by-and-by the news came that the man was saved. He 
lay down again and had a turn at being seasick. By-and- 
by he crept up on deck and got into conversation with a 
man. After some talk with him he found it was the 
very man who had been overboard. He began to talk 
with him about how it happened. 

The man said he was going down the third time and 
had given up all hope, when some one put a light at the 



WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? 775 

porthole, and they just saw his hand and grabbed it. By 
putting that light at the porthole, he saved a man's life. 
My dear friends, you can just hold the light for some 
one else, can't you? You can do something if you will. 
Now, my friends, what we want is to do something. 
Just think of the work that could be done here if each 
one of us would do some one thing! Some one has 
described this world as two great mountains; one a 
mountain of sorrow and the other a mountain of joy. 
If you can take a little off of that mountain of sorrow 
and put it on the mountain of joy, the mountain of joy 
keeps growing. Doesn't it? If you cannot do as much 
as some one else, just do what you can. God doesn't 
ask me to improve ten talents if I have only one. But 
if I go and bury my talent because some one else has 
more, then I am not going to hear the Master say, 
"Well done." Now, I want to say that there is some- 
thing that every one can do if they love Christ, and I 
am talking to Christians this afternoon. If we are true 
Christians we can speak to some one every day about 
spiritual things. Now, I have been asked to say a word 
and tell the people how they can keep from backsliding. 
A good way is to make it a point to read a portion of 
Scripture every day of your life, and not let a day pass 
that you don't speak to some one about spiritual things. 
If you do that you will never backslide. You have got 
to keep your own heart warm, in order to talk to other 
people. Just go right to work and do something for 
some one else. If you see a man in trouble just try to 
help him. Just a kind word may do him good. Go and 
nurse a sick person for one night if they are not able to 
hire a nurse, or, if the wife has been watching by the 



7J6 MOODY'S SERMONS. 

husband for weeks, just take her place for a night. In 
this way you will get hold of these families that are now 
godless and Christless. Then another thing. There is 
many a man that can be reached by a kind word spoken 
in the spirit of Christ. Just a little word on the street 
or when you are doing business, a word about the Savior 
will have weight with many a man. 

What are we doing to save these men? Come, my 
friends, let's arise and go to work. I heard a man the 
other night discussing higher criticism, and I found out 
he was living in sin. I said to him, "You ought to 
confess sin and get rid of it." 

Now, mark ye! " He that winneth souls is wise." It 
doesn't say, "He that discusses is wise." I believe that 
is the highest occupation on the face of the earth. I 
don't believe there is any higher call on this side of 
heaven, and you can all have a hand in it if you will. It 
is said of Napoleon that he had a medal struck off, on 
one side giving an account of the battle, and on the other 
side these words, "I was there." Long years after 
Napoleon had died, those old veterans would take out 
their medals and say, "Just look there. Read that." 
And then they would turn the medal over, and you would 
read, " I was there." They were proud of the fact that 
they were in the thickest of the fight. My dear friends, 
there is a terrible fight going on between darkness and 
light; between God and Satan. Let us have a hand in 
it, and on the hill-tops of glory we shall meet, and say, 
'•'I was there." Every one of you can do this if you 
will. 

Now, there are just two words I would like to leave 
with you. You may forget all the rest of my sermon, 



WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? J77 

but just remember these two words: Consecrate and 
concentrate. First, consecrate your life to God, and 
then concentrate your life upon some one thing. It will 
cut a channel so deep that your influence will be felt. 
Just consecrate yourselves wholly and fully to God; and 
when you work, work for Him and not for yourself. 
Work directly for Jesus Christ, and you will not be dis- 
appointed. 

So let us just consecrate our lives to Him. Let us 
not be selfish, and want our children converted just to 
make our lives a little sweeter, but let it be for His sake. 
And then let us just concentrate our lives upon one 
thing, and do what we can to extend the kingdom. I 
believe what made Dr. Duff so mighty was because he 
just gave his life for India. He just lived for that one 
country, and his influence is felt all through India to- 
day. I was in Scotland when he was there. I knew 
he had concentrated his life upon India and was accom- 
plishing something. O, I do like to meet such men, 
because their whole life has been concentrated upon one 
thing, and they are a success. He made a speech in 
1866, and it was an appeal for India. I bought a copy 
and read it. They had plenty of money in their treas- 
ury, but they couldn't get any men to go there. And 
the old man stood up there for an hour and a half and 
plead and wept for India. Then he fainted away, and 
they carried him out into the vestibule and worked over 
him for some time. When he came to, they said to him, 
" Do you know where you are?" And for a few mo- 
ments he seemed bewildered, and then he said, ' ' O, yes, 
I know now. I was making an appeal for India before 
the general assembly. I didn't quite finish my speech. 



778 Moody's sermons. 

Take me back." But they told him if he went back, he 
would do it at the peril of his life. But he said, "I 
must make one more plea for India," and George H. 
Stuart said it was one of the sublimest scenes of his life 
when they brought that old man back, and the tears 
flowed all over the hall. The old man crept up to the 
desk again and said, ' ' Is it true, fathers and mothers, 
that you have no more sons to give for India? The 
Lord Jesus has been calling for years for men to go and 
preach His gospel there, and the call has been denied, 
and word has come back that Scotland has no more 
sons for India. When the queen calls for men for her 
army, Scotland is very anxious to get her sons enlisted; 
but the Lord wants them, and the response is, ' We 
cannot spare our sons to go to India.' If it is true, al- 
though my health is broken down, and I have come here 
to die among my friends, if it is true, I will pack up to- 
morrow and be off to the shores of the Ganges and let 
those men there know that there is one poor old Scotch- 
man that will die for them." That is the kind of men 
we want to-day. You tell me those men are not going 
to shine? Why, Dr. McDuff shines all through India 
and in the kingdom of God. O, I wish I had the 
spirit of the Lord Jesus! If I only could say something 
to stir you up, what a grand day it would be, not only 
for this state, but for all this republic! Why, 
sometimes when I read the life of Paul, I am ashamed 
of the Christians of this nineteenth century. You take 
your stand beside that little warrior. He has been 
beaten four times. The Jews had given him thirty-nine 
stripes, and they are going to give him thirty-nine more. 
In those times many a man died in the very act of being 



WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? 7/0, 

scourged. That little tentmaker had been scourged 
four times already, and they were going to do it the fifth 
time. Take your stand beside, him. I see the old 
warrior, with his eyes as keen as an eagle's, when he is 
asked what he will do when he comes out of that diffi- 
culty, he says, ' 'Do! This one thing I do, I press toward the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 
I am not going to be overcome by such little difficulties as 
these." They bring the rods down over that weak body; 
he is all bruised and mangled by the blows he has re- 
ceived from those enemies of Christ. They ask him 
what he is going to do if he comes out of this difficulty. 
They say to him, "You had better go off into Arabia 
again and rest," and some one tells him not to be so 
fanatical, so much in earnest. But he says, "This one 
thing I do. I press toward the mark for the prize of the 
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Look at him 
again. They have stoned him, and I don't know but 
that they have stoned him to death. They pick up 
great stones and hurl them at that little man, and there 
he lies all mangled and bruised. I see him get up, and 
he staggers. Is he going to sit down and write a letter 
to some paper and tell how he has been abused? Look 
at him again. He goes over into Macedonia, and the 
first thing that happens is that he is arrested and put 
into the Philippian jail. I think if any of this choir 
were put into the jail they wouldn't sing very much. I'm 
afraid my friend Jacobs wouldn't sing very much, or if 
he did sing I am afraid it would be something like 

" Hark a doleful " There was no sign that they 

were going to get out of the jail, and they thought per- 
haps they had got to die there, but they sang praises as 



780 Moody's sermons. 

aforetime. If they were to go by the way of the 
Philippian jail they had just as soon go that way as any 
other. They were pressing toward the mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I tell 
you what (if you will allow me the expression), the devil 
got his match when he got hold of Paul. He was just 
pressing toward home. He preached the gospel every- 
where he went. Like John Bunyan, they told him if he 
would give up preaching they would let him out of prison. 
He replied, " Let me out to-day, and I will preach to- 
morrow." But look at Paul again. Here is a conse- 
crated man, a man that has concentrated his life upon 
one thing. He preached Christ and held him up every- 
where he went. And that is the kind of men we want 
now. " If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto Me." 
Go and lift Him up in your homes, in the Sunday- 
schools, in the darkest street you have in this city. We 
can all do it. This little child here can lift Him up if 
she will. Many a child has been used to lead some 
giant, as it were, into the kingdom. When we become 
as little children, then it is that God can use us. God 
wants our weakness. 

But look at Paul now. His warfare is over. He 
picks up his pen and writes his last letter to Timothy, 
" I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me 
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, 
but to all them also that love His appearing." Thank 
God He never broke away. It was a good fight, wasn't 
it? My dear friends, it is a good fight we are fighting, 
we are on the. Lord's side. When he finished the letter 



WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? 78 1 

they took him out, and Nero gave orders to have him 
executed. When I was in Rome they tried to tell me 
the road he walked. I used to walk that road, and I 
just tried to get my feet into the footprints where Paul 
walked. Tradition says they led him out two miles. 
Talk about Alexander and Caesar! Rome never had 
such a warrior. Walk along by his side. Let some of 
these whining, mournful, sad Christians that have got 
such a long, tedious face and experience walk along be- 
side him and say. "Well, Paul, you have had a hard 
time, haven't you?" "No! I have had a glorious fight. 
I have had a grand fight and a grand battle." "Would 
you like to live your life over again?" " Yes." " If you 
had a thousand lives wouldn't you give a few of them to 
Rome?" "No; I had rather serve Christ a thousand 
times over than serve the god of this world. I served 
the god of this world in Jerusalem, and I know what it 
is. I know what it is to serve Jesus Christ." " Yes; 
but they are going to behead you." " Well, Nero may 
have my head, but the Lord has my heart." They 
thought they were going to execute him, but they didn't 
know what they were talking about. Paul looked be- 
yond. He saw a crown and a city whose builder and 
maker was God. " I press toward the mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ." Do 
you tell me the form of the fourth isn't there? Do you 
tell me the angels were not interested in that execution? 
Do you suppose the chariots of Israel were not gathered 
around that man? God was with him, and when his 
work was done God said, " Come home, Paul, I have a 
welcome for you." Think of the eighteen hundred years 
that he has of untold joy. I don't suppose that there 



782 Moody's sermons. 

is an hour in the day but that there is some one con- 
verted by reading some of his epistles. Look at the 
fruit the man has had. ' ' They that be wise shall shine 
as the brightness of the firmament." Isn't he going to 
shine? And if he shines down here, how must he shine 
up there! Think of it! Let us now reconsecrate our- 
selves to God. Let each one take hold and do all he 
can. If you can reach a man by taking him to the 
Episcopal church, take him to the Episcopal church. If 
you can reach him by taking him to the Baptist church, 
take him to the Baptist church. Never mind about the 
creeds and doctrines. Never mind about these names; 
they are nothing. Why, we want to get above these 
party walls. Now, to-night, God willing, I will speak 
to the unconverted, and I hope each one of you will 
bring some one else. WbJie I am preaching you just 
keep praying. 



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reading matter 220 pages. 




WIT. Contains sketches from Mark Twain, witticisms 
from F. H. Carruth, Donglas Jerrold, M. Quad, Op e 
Reid, Mrs. Partington, Eli Perkins, O'Malley, Bill 
Nye, Artemus Ward, Abe Lincoln, Burdette, Daniel 
Webster, Victor Hugo, Brother Gardner, Clinton 
Scollard, Tom Hood, L. R. Catlin, Josh. Billings,. 
Chauncey Depew and all humorous writers of mod- 
ern times. Illustrated with 75 full-page engravings, 
by H. DeLay, and contains reading matter 407 pages. 



BENONI AND SERAPTA. A Story of the Time of the Great Con 
stantine, Founder of the Christian Faith. By Douglas Vernon. A 
religious novel showing a Parsee's constancy and faith through 
many persecutions, trials and difficulties, placed in his way by priests 
nobles and queens of his time and his final triumph over all obstacles 
Being an interesting novel, int nded to show the state of the religious 
feelings and unscrupulous intrigues of those professing religion at the 
time of the foundation of the Christian faith. Illustrated with 33 full' 
Dage engravings, by H. DeLay. and contains reading matter 389 pages. 



WEBSTER'S UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY 




This Dictionary 
contains every word 
that Noah Webster 
ever defined, and 
the following 

Special 

Features 

An Appendix of 
10,000 Additional 
Words. 

A List of i£, 000 
Synonyms. 

— o — 

Pronouncing 
cabularies of 

SCRIPTURE NAMES 
GREEB AND LATIN 
PROPER NAMES 
MODERN 

GEOGRAPHICAL 
NAMES. 



A Dictionary of 
Mercantile and Le- 
gal Terms. Eighty- 
six pages of illus- 
trations, portraying 
over 3,000 objects 
difficult to discribe 
in words. The 
Flags of all Nations 
in Colors. 

Size 10^x8^x3^ inches; weight about 7^ lbs; 
illustrated. Strongly and durably bound in three styles. 

HALF RUSSIA . PRICE, &3.00 

FULL SHEEP PRICE, $4.00 

SPECIAL TAN SHEEP. . . PRICE, $6. OO 

THUMB INDEX 50 CENTS EXTRA. 
This Dictionary also contains a frontispiece portrait of Noah 
Webster; author's preface; a memoir of the English language; rules for 
pronunciation, etc., etc. 

Printed on good grade of clear white paper, and especial care is 
taken with the binding. For the sheep binding a beautiful cover design 
was made. 

RHODES & McCLURE PUBLISHING CO. 

296 WABASH AVENUE, CHICAGO, ILL. 



1,700 pages, 



FOR THE DEAF. 

THE AUDIPHONE 

tw Instrument that Enables Deaf Persons to Hear Or- 
dinary Conversation Readily through the Medium of 
fhe Teeth, and Many of those Born Deaf and Dumb 
to Hear and Learn to Speak. 

INVENTED BY RICHARD S. RHODES, CHICAGO. 

Medal Awarded at the World's Columbia Expo- 
sition, Chicago. 

The Audiphone is a new instrument made of a peculiar composition, 
posessing the property of gathering the faintest sounds (somewhat similar 
to a telephone diaphragm), and conveying them to the auditory nerve, 
through the medium of the teeth. The extei'nal ear has nothing what- 
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Thousands are in use by those who would not do without them for 
any consideration. It has enabled doctors and lawyers to resume practice, 
teachers to resume teaching, mothers to hear the voices of their children, 
thousands to hear their ministers, attend concerts and theatres, and 
engage in general conversation. Music is heard perfectly with it when 
without i, not a note could be distinguished. It is convenient to carry 
and to use. Ordinary conversation can be heard with ease. In most 
cases deafness is not detected 

Full instructions will be sent with each instrument. The Audiphone 
is patented throughout the civilized world. 

PRICE: 

Conversational, small size _-__--- $3.00 

Conversational, medium si2e, _---_-- 3.00 

Concert size, - - - - - -■-_.- - - 500 

Trial instrument, good and serviceable, - - - - - 1.50 

The Audiphone will be sent to any address, on receipt of price, by 

Rhodes & McClure Publishing Co., 

296 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, 111. 




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